Nothing Stays the Same
by TygerEye
Summary: On the dark streets of Corellia, a drunk stumbles over the body of a Rebel Hero...and the Emperor's Hand is on trial for his murder.
1. Chapter 1

**NOTHING STAYS THE SAME**

By: TygerEye Antilles 

                _Author's Note:  Takes place six years after _Heir to the Empire.  _Callista episode is already over.  Pre-_ Ambush at Corellia_, Post-_ Crystal Star.

                **CHAPTER ONE**

                The man stumbled down the street, his alcohol-muddled brain barely allowing him to recall the location of his house.  He knew his wife would be angry with him for coming home in the middle of the night, drunk yet again, but to hell with her.  If she only knew the stress he was under, she wouldn't be such a pain in the ass whenever he was home.

                He walked through an alleyway lit with one lonely glow lamp that only accentuated the darkness.  He looked up and saw the numerous stars above his home planet.  He smiled drunkenly.  _That_ was where he wanted to be.  In a starship, far away from his crumbling marriage, his shitty job, away from Coronet City where every day he saw men richer than he would ever be—

                --He stumbled over something and fell to the ground.  The sharp pain in his left wrist, where he'd taken some of the impact, woke his mind a little, but what he next saw sobered him instantly.  He glanced back to look at what he'd tripped over and found a body.  Half of the corpse's face was little more than a meaty mess.  One blue eye, widened with fear and glazed in death, stared at the stars above.

                The woman glanced at her partner, a 2-1B droid, and she repeated her original conclusion.  The med-droid recorded her statement. 

                "Human male, about thirty years old.  Cuts and burns on both wrists indicate stun cuffs.  A piece of skin was sliced off the upper right arm.  Post-mortem.  It's probably to delay identification.  Numerous bruises and cuts all over the body.  He was beaten before he was killed.  As for the face, approximately half is gone.  Burn marks seem to be consistent with a hand blaster of some sort.  More tests are needed, but I'd guess a BlasTech of some sort, maybe a newer TR series.  One eye is sludge, the other, the right eye, is still intact.  My associate is running retina scans right now."

                She nodded to the med-droid and it cut off the recording.  The woman turned to the Corellian Security officer standing by the door.  "Yes?"

                "Just wanted to see if you were as good as everyone said, Doctor."

                "I'm _better_ than they say, Detective."  She smiled and removed the protective gloves she'd been wearing.  "I've got to go put this stiff in the freezer, but then I've got some free time. What do you say we go grab lunch somewhere?"

                "What about the retina scan?"

                "Zak is going through criminals known to be on Corellia, then a System-wide search.  It'll probably be a while. This guy had good muscle tone. I doubt he's a local thug.  They always like to overdo the exercise bit and look like they're made of plastic.  This guy worked out on a regular schedule.  _Rigor mortis_ never really set in, and I've sent a blood sample to the lab.  I'll have my comlink with me in case either one gets anything."

                "Great.  So, you want to try something Ithorian, or, oh, there's a good new restaurant, _Kashyyyk _something…"

                The medical examiner pulled the coveralls off her normal clothes.  "I don't know, but I'd rather have my meat _cooked_ this time, so Wookiee's out…"

                Halfway through a meal of some roasted avian from Selonia, the woman's comlink went off.  She apologized to the detective, and took the call.  "Dony here."  She listened to the voice on the other end, and then, disappointed, said, "All right.  Well, let's hope the retina scan goes through."

                She turned back towards her lunch.

                "What's wrong?" the detective asked.

                "Turns out that guy I was working on earlier, you remember him, right?  Half his face just so much bone and meat?"  she noticed her friend turn slightly pale as he glanced down at his medium-rare bird, then back up at her.  "Well, the blood scan went through, and his entire DNA makeup is soft.  Renla checked for any additives to his blood stream and she found _carythimol_.  Does that ring a bell?"

                "Yeah, it alters DNA, preventing accurate identifications.  Black market crap.  Expensive."

                "Well, he's been pumped on it.  I won't be surprised whether they injected him, beat him around, then left him in the alley and blasted his face.  They probably didn't mean to leave one eye intact—"

                "That's great, but, hey, Dony, don't you think we can have one meal where you _don't _ talk about corpses and everything?"

                "Sure."

                Five hours later Dony Telenema was in her office typing up the report on the John Doe when the comlink in her pocket beeped.  She clipped it onto her shirt collar.

                "Dony."  A pause.  "Oh, yeah, Zak.  You have an ID yet?"  After a moment she dropped the caf mug from her fingers and it shattered into dozens of shards of glass on the floor.

                Han knew something was wrong when he commed his wife and no one answered.  She had been at home all day, taking a break from her seemingly endless days as the Chief of State of the New Republc.  Winter was in charge of the kids today so Leia could rest, and he believed that she and See-Threepio took the twins and Anakin to one of the museums Coruscant had plenty of.

                Winter had commed Han when she said she couldn't reach Leia.  She and the kids wanted Leia to come out for a relaxing lunch in the Botanical Gardens of Ithor.  Han walked to the turbolift, barely acknowledging the guard near the lift.  _It's probably nothing_, Han told himself.  _She's sleeping and left the comlink in another room.  I'm just probably overreacting in my old age._

                But ignoring the HoloNet as well?  He knew his wife—she was a light sleeper.  And both he and Winter had used the special family channel, and, well, Leia _never_ ignored that one.

                He opened the door and saw his wife kneeling on the floor, looking straight ahead, but from her expression, he doubted she saw anything.

                "Leia?"  he asked, and only when he put his hand on her shoulder did she look up.  He saw tears in her brown eyes, and worried, he asked, "What happened?"

                "Oh, gods, Han.  Last night I felt so strange, like something was gone.  I told you, right?"  Her voice was breathless.

                "Yeah, you told me to keep an eye out today.  Leia, sweetheart, _what happened_?"

                "It got worse today, like something was missing.  I realized it when Winter took the kids, and I saw Anakin leave.  Ani complained this morning of feeling strange."

                Han waited for her to continue.  After a few seconds where she was clearly trying to compose herself, she continued.

                "I called up the Jedi Academy, and Tionne said Luke had decided to take a vacation, and he went to Corellia."  She stared into Han's hazel eyes.  "Han, they found Luke.  He's been murdered."


	2. Chapter 2

**NOTHING STAYS THE SAME**

**CHAPTER TWO**

                Han's stomach plummeted.  "_What?_"

                "Some drunk found his body this morning.  Retina scans proved it was him."

                "What about DNA?  Did they do DNA tests?"

                "They said his bloodstream was full of _cary-something.  It screwed up the DNA.  No DNA match will be entirely accurate.  They don't even know which strand to begin with."_

                "Did they double-check the retinas?"

                "The politician said that the medical examiner triple-checked it.  She couldn't believe it, either."

                "Luke, dead?  That's impossible.  There's got to be a logical explanation."

                "I felt him die last night and I didn't even know it," Leia murmured.  This couldn't happen…

                "Wouldn't it be…well, more explosive?  Don't you think you would have really _felt his death?  And Anakin…he's so attached to Luke.  When you were in that explosion, with those droids, remember, they all knew it.  Wouldn't they have felt Luke?"_

                "They said he'd been drugged and beaten, and he was probably unconscious when they killed him.  I just felt him, his presence cut-off, disappear.  He's really dead."

                "He can't be," Han said.  Luke couldn't have died in the streets like just another person.  Wouldn't he have gone out in a fight, not drugged like an animal?

                "Who did it?" he asked, anger rising.

                "They don't have any suspects yet."  Leia hugged her husband and cried like she'd never stop.

                Talon Karrde sat back in his chair and glanced at the data disks on his desk.  All of them were from members of his intelligence gathering team, each of them written by a professional (though what talent they excelled in was not always public knowledge.)  All of the disks were the same grey color, but as he looked through them, he found three on the bottom that said "IMPORTANT".  Talon shrugged as he inserted one of these disks into the data reader.

                "Key-Corellia-Nine-Bravo."

                It was a medium level code, so her knew instantly that it wasn't from anyone on his personal ship or anyone directly below him.  The holographic screen materialized and Karrde found himself staring at some report, a New Republic Intelligence report.  Interested, he read it carefully.  He had two people in the NRI, but both of them knew not to send the reports like this.  They used voice messages and a higher-access code.

                It started off stating the date of the information and location.  Coruscant's NRI headquarters, yesterday morning.  Someone worked hard to get this to him quickly.  What he read next made his blood run cold.

                The murder of Luke Skywalker?

                Talon stared at the report for a few minutes.  Luke Skywalker?  How did someone actually kill Skywalker?  The Jedi Master always found a way to escape, if just barely.  A copy of the autopsy was also included.

                "Holy shit," he said loudly.  This happened yesterday, and no one informed him about it until today?  How could someone keep something like this from the media?  The businessman part of his mind noted he'd have to recheck his contacts on Corellia.  For something like this to get past him, _someone_ must have screwed up somewhere.

                He had to reread the next section twice before it registered.

                Talon reached for his comlink, switching it on before it was even off his desk.  "Aves, prepare the _Wild Karrde._  We've got to get to Coruscant.  Mara's going to be arrested."

Mara Jade disembarked from her ship, the _Jade's Fire, _and looked around.  She couldn't see any other people in the docking bay, and that bothered her.  Usually, especially here on Coruscant, the ships were swarming with pilots and mechanics alike.  She'd already unloaded her cargo, and the _Fire _ would remain docked for a day or two.  She went back on board her ship and grabbed some clothes as well as he comlink and slave device for the _Fire._  She stretched out with the Force after finally being able to sense it again.  She had been transporting ysalimiri in her ship for a buyer here on the capital of the New Republic, and although she had adapted to the emptiness the Force void had caused, she greeted its return gladly.  It had taken five days to reach the capital after her short stop on Paqrisa, where she picked up the shipment of creatures.  Before then, she had been on Corellia, delivering a sealed package to one of the planet's ambassadors.  Altogether, she'd spent eight days on her ship; eight days of old holofilms she kept onboard because she couldn't receive messages or even the HoloNet while in hyperspace.  That was one thing she hated about light-speed—she couldn't receive any news while traveling.  She'd been effectively cut off from the rest of the galaxy for seven days.  Sure, she could pull the _Fire_ out of hyperspace whenever she wanted to pick up news, but these ysalimiri had been a priority delivery.  Some research facility, most likely.  Mara snorted.  She was a Master Trader, not a delivery boy.

                She felt a group of people coming towards her ship and she could feel hostility towards…her? in them.

                "Miss Jade?" one of them yelled into her ship.  Mara recognized his uniform as one belonging to the New Republic Guards.

                Mara quickly thought back.  She hadn't done anything wrong.  Everything on her ship was legal, except for…well, if they could find that, then they were welcome to it.  That crystal was so well hidden _no one_ could know where it was.

                "Yes?" she asked.  _Might as well play polite_, she thought to herself.  Three of the Guards stepped forward.

                "Please step off the ship, hands above your head.  Slowly, now."

                Confused, Mara did what they told her.  Her danger sense hadn't flared up, but even so, she cautiously walked towards them.

                "What the hell is going on?" she demanded.  At least two of the guards had blasters pointed straight at her.  And one of them carried stun cuffs and a ysalimiri nutrient cage on his back.  He wasn't close enough so that the Force-free bubble affected her.

                "You are under arrest, Mara Jade, for the murder of Luke Skywalker.  You have the right to remain silent…"

                Mara stared at the lead Guard in complete disbelief.  The murder of _Luke Skywalker_?  Luke was dead?  Impossible.  She'd have felt his death.  Instinctively, she reached out with the Force for Luke's familiar presence.  Nothing.

                The Guard searched her, confiscating the small blaster from her forearm, as well as the lightsaber at her belt and the sheathed vibroblade also attached to her utility belt.  Her holdout blaster was in the bag they also took and two Guards went on her beloved ship.

                "I have no idea what you're talking about," she began, but the Guard cut her off.

                "I suggest you don't speak until you get a lawyer, Miss Jade.  I also suggest rather strongly you don't try anything.  A lot of people here admired that Jedi and these Guards are trigger-happy."  He slapped the stun cuffs onto her wrists, and she just stared at them, and then schooled her face back to its empty look, totally expressionless.  She'd have to wait to contact Karrde.

                "Look, Miss Jade, we know about your Imperial past.  Chief of State Organa Solo herself admitted that you had threatened her brother.  We've got motive already.  We have witnesses you saw you on Corellia.  Your ship was on Corellia until his murder and then you left.  There's your opportunity. "  The Intelligence agent sat on the table next to the Master Trader.  "We know you were there, we know why you did it.  We know how.  You were sloppy, Jade.  I'd have expected better from the _Emperor's Hand_."

                Mara Jade just stared at the wall on the other side of the room.  She knew that to her right and left were observation rooms, where a dozen or so people were watching her every move.  Is she nervous?  Is she scared?  Mad?  What is going on in that brain of hers?

                Normally she would reach out with the Force just so she could feel the people that she knew would be there, but the ysalimiri prevented it.  They had surrounded her with the creatures; obviously afraid she'd be able to escape with the Force.  So instead she just sat there, her mind automatically recording everything this sorry excuse for a Guard was telling her while the other part of her mind allowed itself to think everything over.

                How could Luke be dead?  She had just seen him on Corellia.  She'd convinced him to come with her on the brief vacation from the Jedi Academy.  She'd spent most of her time with him.

                She never felt him die.  Wouldn't she have felt him die?  She knew that she'd been surrounded by ysalimiri, but, _somehow_, wouldn't she have known?  The Emperor's death had nearly killed her, and she'd felt nearly every other Jedi's deaths, a sudden hole where she never knew they actually existed.  When Luke had been nearly killed by Kyp Durron, she knew it, a deep ache until he was able to rejoin his body.  And he hadn't even been dead.  Surely she would have know had he truly died.

                But what if Luke's murderer—murderers—used ysalimiri, like her own captors were doing now?  That would explain the feeling of him being cut-off, rather than dying.  Dying.  He's dead.  Impossible.  How could he die?

                She always told him that one day she wouldn't be there to save his ass.  He'd remarked, like the farmboy he was, that when that day came, he'd find another way out.  He _was_ a Jedi Master, in case she didn't know.

                The Intel agent sighed to himself.  She wouldn't say anything.  He knew it.  Just like the Imperials, she was taught to be patient, never giving anything away.  He wished momentarily that the New Rep would allow torture to be used to get details or a confession.  Gods knew this Imperial deserved it.

                It took all of Leia's self control to identify Luke's body.  Even though the Medical Examiner's Office in Coronet City had cleaned away the blood and covered the half of his face, she still couldn't see the corpse as having once housed her brother.  The body looked like a sand panther had gotten a hold of it.  The face looked like his, and there was no mistaking the color of the eye.  She felt like she'd aged fifty years as she walked away.

                Luke had been wearing a loose tunic and pants, as well as his knee-high black boots, all clothes she had bought for him or had watched him buy.  It was something hearing that he'd died, but something else entirely to actually see his body on the clean sheet, knowing that under the cloth covering the right part of his face was meat and brains.   There was no stench; the medical examiner had immediately frozen his body.  His corpse was the same as when the drunk tripped over it.

                Once Leia got back to the apartment, she collapsed, sobbing.  She couldn't help it.


	3. Chapter 3

**NOTHING STAYS THE SAME**

**CHAPTER THREE**

                "She sure as hell looks guilty."

                "She sure as hell _is _guilty," Cardinal Ling'ah declared.  "I have all the proof right here in front of me.  She was there, she had motive…what more could I ask for?"  The prosecuting attorney looked at her aide.

                "A murder weapon?" the man asked.

                "Easy.  She always carries around a blaster.  The NRI just have to hand me the reports saying it matches.  Of course, they won't actually say it completely matches Skywalker's wounds—you can never be sure with blaster bolts."

                "Still, that's a hole.  All whoever would _want_ to defend that Imperial whore has to say is that there's no definite murder weapon."  Shalloh frowned.  "Or that there were no eyewitnesses."

                "I've won cases with less evidence and more opposition than that," Cardinal brushed it off.  "Besides, don't forget who this is: Luke Skywalker.  Everyone on the Inner Council will vote her ass to be executed."

                "Maybe it was just an accident?" he asked without real conviction.

                "Just an accident _carythinol_ was injected before he died?" she laughed.  "You know how expensive that shit is?"

                "They might say it's all circumstantial," Shalloh suggested.

                "Never.  The Council would never listen."

                Cardinal couldn't keep the smile from her face.  Once she had been elected Senator, she feared she'd never be allowed back to the courtroom.  Now, she had the chance for her grand finale—the prosecution of Mara Jade, ex-assassin, former Emperor's Hand.

                Ten days after Luke's body had been found, formal charges were brought against Mara Jade.  Luke Skywalker was laid to rest in a massive ceremony led by Leia Organa Solo, who could barely make it through her speech.  Rogue Squadron buddies General Wedge Antilles, Tycho Celchu, as well as Hobbie Klivian and Wes Janson, also spoke, talking about times when Luke pulled through whenever it seemed impossible, how he helped with anything and everything.  Corran Horn and his wife Mirax attended the ceremony.  Corran still seemed to be reeling—two of his friends, one dead, the other charged with his death.

                Mara heard every speech, saw every sob, saw all the tears and sadness.  Leia Organa Solo had demanded for Mara to be forced to watch the entire ceremony in her cell.  Mara let herself fall back into her blind-to-the-galaxy phase, where she didn't acknowledge anything or anyone.  Instead she retreated to the part of her mind that still let her think in the midst of everything.  After the Emperor's death, she had relied on this cool, inner self to pull her through.

                Karrde still wasn't here.  He knew by now, it was impossible for him _not_ to know.  So why wasn't he here?  Maybe he felt it was in the business' best interest to condemn her actions and get back to work.  He'd never betrayed a loyal employee before, but there was always a first time for everything.

                She'd been a loyal employee, and this was how he repaid her…

                But maybe the NRI wasn't letting Karrde near her.  That thought comforted her somewhat.  Maybe he'd been trying to contact her for days, since he found out about her imprisonment and they weren't letting him near.  He'd find her a lawyer, a damned good one, with the best record.  He wouldn't let the traitorous New Republic tear apart his second-in-command without a fight.

                Two days of imprisonment, the only other person she'd seen was that damned NRI agent.  She hadn't said a word.  She knew nothing she'd say would help her.  They'd just say she was lying, so why try?

                She didn't notice when the speakers grew quiet and the holoscreen disappeared.

                She was safe inside her mind where she wasn't locked up like an animal, where Luke was still alive.

                "Mara!"

                Mara looked up, startled.  She knew that voice.

                "Mara, what happened?"

                She heard Talon's voice, but saw Luke Skywalker's face.  He walked towards her, and his face bled away, and she saw Karrde right in front of her.  His icy eyes studied her face, no small amount of concern on his face.

                "Talon?" she asked softly.  He hadn't deserted her?

                "Gods, Mara, are you alright?"

                "Of course," she said, smiling faintly.  "Couldn't be better.  But the service here sucks."

                "I came as soon as I could.  The Republic tried to keep me from seeing you."  He sat on the edge of the bed, the only object in the cell besides the tiny refresher.  "I have to ask though, Mara," he added quietly.  "Are you guilty?"

                So he thought she'd snapped, finally giving into the voice in her head and shooting Skywalker.  "Guilty?  Of killing Luke—of killing Skywalker?  Hell no.  I didn't do it, Talon."  Mara tentatively let herself come out of her hiding place in her mind.  "They've got the wrong person."  She tired to keep her voice steady and unwavering.  She was Mara Jade, and even if Skywalker was dead, then she would continue.  The Emperor's Hand would always survive.

                Right?  
                "I knew you didn't kill him, Mara.  I just had to ask.  You know how it is."

                She nodded.  "Talon, what's going to happen?" she demanded, a spark of the real Mara Jade.  The numbed Mara, the one incapable of dealing with Luke's apparent murder, was hidden away, locked tightly up.

                "_New Republic versus Mara Jade_.  They're putting you on trial."

                "What's the evidence?"  _I hadn't left anything behind…_

                "They say you had opportunity and motive.  I sent you to Corellia, and they've put his time of death sometime between ten at night to two in the morning.  That's when the drunk found him.  The lawyer keeps saying that you swore to kill Luke and it just took a while longer than you expected.  Leia Organa Solo, Han Solo, the med examiner from Coronet City, and an expert on Imperial torture are witnesses."

                "Imperial torture?"

                "He had _carythimol_in his system, as well as marks obviously the result of torture.  Beatings, deep cuts, some burns, stuff like that.  They think they can connect that to your Imperial past."

                "_Carythimol?_  What's that?"  Mara knew what it was, and her mind was already turning…not many had access to that drug.  She asked the question to keep the conversation going and in case the NRI were recording this session.  It was doubtless that they were.

                "It alters DNA and all that.  Makes DNA identification practically impossible."

                "It's a drug?"

                "Yeah.  They found large quantities of the stuff in his system."  Both Talon and Mara avoided mentioning Luke's name.  Talon considered the man to be a good friend, and he wasn't quite sure how far Mara had come from wanting to kill the Jedi.  For all he knew, they could have been very close.  They had compatible personalities, so why not?

                "Tell me about this drug," Mara ordered.

                Talon had a feeling she would ask this.  She would demand to know everything involving her trial.  For that reason he'd looked up information on it before he arrived.  "Expensive.  Has to be kept at a certain tropical temperature or it loses it's effectiveness.  It's really finicky, but it works, and there are still illegal studies going on. They're working to make it stronger."

                _They've been working on it since before my time as Emperor's Hand, Talon.  How is it a smart guy like you thinks that it took so long to come up with DNA altering drugs?  The Emperor had that as a secret project.  It didn't work too well anyway.  I should hope they've actually made it better in all this time._  "So let them check my credit account.  I haven't taken any large amounts, well, except for those two shipments, but those can be proven.  If I had bought any of this stuff—_carythimol_—it would be obvious in a huge chunk missing from my account.  And if I were to buy it and transport it to Corellia, then I'd have to have bought a heater of some sort—I keep my ship much too cold for this.  Has the Republic found and so-called witnesses for this?"

                "Some poor drug dealer the Republic caught who swears you bought _carythimol_ from him?  No, not yet."  Talon put his head in his hands, tired, but not wanting to convey the image of surrender to his second in command.  "I've gotten you a lawyer.  Best in the trade.  "Name is Rendel Alino."

                "Alino?  I know that name.  Handled that dispute between Bakura and Commenor.  Nice piece of work.  Met him at one of the Republic trade functions I attended."

                "Yeah, he'll be here in a few hours; he's coming from Corellia.  He was talking to witnesses and checking out information.  He's a real hands-on guy.  He knows what he's doing."

                "Prosecuting attorney?"

                "Cardinal Ling'ah."

                "The Senator?"

                "Yeah.  Jury is the Inner Council."

                "You've got to be kidding me.  Juries are supposed to be impartial."  Mara felt sick to her stomach.  With a normal jury she knew she had no chance, but the Inner Council would probably bring her to the front of the Imperial Palace and shoot her immediately after the trial.  With a normal jury, maybe they'd put he on Kessel or something like that.  A place like that she knew she could escape.

                "Do you really think you'll find an impartial jury in this galaxy, Mara?  Luke _was_ the only living Jedi Master," Talon reminded her.  As if she could forget.

                _I don't know how all this happened!_  "So I'm on trial."  At Talon's affirmative nod she added, "And I'll be executed in due time.  They won't care and they'll vote guilty.  Damn it," she said with strong feeling.  _This all happened too quickly!  There's something wrong with this._

                "How have they been treating you?" he asked.  He carefully hid his anger.  He noticed the empty look in her eyes, the pain.  What little color had been in her naturally pale skin was gone.  Or that could just be because of the harsh lights.  How could the New Republic accuse her of this?  Mara had worked hard to put her past behind her and all these people could do was drag her back.  She was sill in shock.  Didn't that mean anything to these hawk-bats?

                "Like the normal prisoner.  I haven't seen a window to the outside in almost three days.  They've questioned me in two hour sessions.  They've accused me of every crime possible, including smuggling Ewoks off of Endor."  That was an old joke in the smuggling community.  "Nothing new," she added.  She didn't mention that she thought the lights were being left on longer every day, and food was in small quantities than the other prisons she'd been in.  It was a much milder version of Imperial interrogation, and she'd been forced to endure Imperial torture before.  This was a jaunt in the park compared with a session with the Emperor's most talented.

                "Rendel's working to get you out on bail."

                "Won't happen.  Who's the Judge?"

                "At first they wanted the President—"

                "Organa Solo," Mara interrupted.

                "But she's to be a witness.  You've got to realize, this is a big case, Mara.  Everyone in power wants a piece of this verdict."  

                _Everyone wants me dead._  "Of course.  This is just another belt buckle for them."  Mara tried to make her voice neutral, to keep the bitterness from leaking through.  She barely succeeded.  "Where am I?  They never bothered to tell me."

                "NRI headquarters."

                "_New Republic Intelligence_?" she asked incredulously.  "What the hell?"

                Talon saw his employee losing her nerves.  Usually she was cold, distant calculating.  Now he could see a glimpse of the woman underneath.  One who knew she was to die.

                "They were afraid to put you in a normal prison.  They've surrounded this room with ysalimiri.  I recognized them as I was escorted in."

                "Yeah, I know.  They think I can escape using the Force."

                "They also weren't sure where to put you.  This is a very big trial.  They decided to keep it all in the government.  No one can get to you.  Security is much tighter here that the overcrowded prisons."

                _I'll never get out of here! _she thought.  _These damned New Rep Senators have always hated me.  Anyone who got close to their precious Jedi had to have a puppet mind for them to like them.  And me—Emperor's Hand, and then a Trader.  Of course they hate me.  I probably make more money a year than they will in three or four._  "I've never much enjoyed that grey that's standard in prisons," she said instead.

                Karrde closed his eyes briefly.  Why did this have to happen to her?

                "Talon," Mara said, very softly.  It was out of character for her to beg, but she would if it meant that her employer would find Skywalker.  Her next words were barely audible.  "Find Luke."

                "Mara, they found his body—" Talon began to say, but the red-head interrupted him.

                "I never felt him die."

                "You were transporting ysalimiri, Mara.  If he'd died when you were unable to sense the Force, how would you know?"

                "Because…" Mara looked away from his icy eyes.  How indeed?  How would she now if Luke had died?  She just figured that she'd know.  "There was about an hour or so where I could feel the Force.  I sensed nothing out of the ordinary."  _Except when I tried to reach him…But there was no pain.  Just a shadow…_

                "All right, I'll put more personnel on it."  That phrase told Mara that he already had a team together to search for the Jedi.  The softness to his tone made her wonder whether Talon knew.  Did he think that she would actually…?

            "Thanks, Talon.  I _know_ he's not dead."  And yet she couldn't keep the seed of doubt deep inside from questioning her.  Karrde was right—if she was in the Force-free bubble, _how would she know?_


	4. Chapter 4

**NOTHING STAYS THE SAME**

****

**CHAPTER FOUR**

                Han sat at the computer interface in his apartment.  The children were with Winter, and Leia was asleep in their room.  She hadn't been getting anywhere near enough sleep since…well, for a while.  Now she was asleep in the middle of the afternoon from sheer exhaustion.  He was sending an inquiry as to the locations of Mara Jade's ship for the past month.  He didn't believe Mara was innocent, but he had a slight doubt.  And that was from his son.

                "Daddy, why is Aunt Mara in trouble?" Anakin had asked earlier that morning.  Han couldn't remember when the children had started calling the Trader "Aunt Mara."  They saw her a few times a year, and Han had noticed that the normally cold woman had warmed to the children.  All three of his kids had items in their room purchased for them by the woman.  Jaina had the wall hanging (on the ceiling, above her bed) of the map of the known galaxy, which occasionally zoomed in to show a specific system.  Jacen had an interactive holo of dozens of animals from many different worlds.  Anakin had several toys like the ones used by Force sensitive children in the Old Republic: globes that when touched by the Force would burst into brilliant hues, and others like that.  Jacen and Jaina still played with those, when Anakin would let them.

                Han frowned.  Who in all the Corellian hells was this woman?  Just when he though he had her figured out, she pulled something crazy.

                Like killing Luke.

                It hurt deeply to think that the kid was gone.  Han tried to be strong, if not for Leia, than for the children.  The young twins were numbed.  Han wasn't sure he'd been the right person to explain why they wouldn't be seeing Uncle Luke anymore.  And then the kids found out Mara was the main suspect.  They were confused.  Why would Aunt Mara do that?  She wouldn't.  And Anakin told everyone who would listen that "They have the wrong girl."

                So Solo was just checking on it.  Mara filed flight plans at the majority of the space ports she'd vacated, and they all came up legit.  And she'd been seen on Corellia the same time Luke was there.  In fact, she'd arrived within two hours of when Luke landed on planet.  It hadn't taken much to learn that Luke had flown off Yavin 4 in his X-wing less than an hour after he told Tionne he needed a vacation.

                His X-wing.  Huh.  Where was Artoo?

                Luke never flew his X-wing without Artoo-Detoo, his trusty astromech droid.  The Corellian authorities had found Luke's X-wing, but no Artoo.  And the droid wasn't on Yavin 4.  Tionne mentioned that Luke had taken Artoo and the X-wing.  Maybe the droid would have proof Mara killed Luke.  Or maybe the droid was in pieces somewhere.  Mara was practical.  She wouldn't leave behind a witness.

                Han forced himself to stare at the interface.  She'd been on Corellia for three days.  All she was supposed to do was pick up some shipment to hurry off somewhere else to pick up the ysalimiri.  She left about midnight the night Luke was killed.

                It was too easy.  She was there.  The proof of that was right in front of him.  She had motive.  Luke turned Vader, and the Sith Lord then killed her Emperor.  She'd sworn to kill Luke, but then seemed to think better of it.  Just an act.  Then six years after they meet, she killed him.  Maybe the Emperor had invaded her dreams again, and she'd given in.  Her lawyer would be smart to plead insanity.

                The tall brown haired man walked into Mara's cell.  He didn't dress much like an attorney, or an interrogator.  He wore black slacks and a dark green shirt, the same shade as his eyes.  He had an oversized long sleeved black shirt over the green one.  He looked casual, but Mara recognized the set of his jaw and the concentration in his eyes.  This was Rendel Alino.

                "Miss Jade," he said, smiling briefly.  "Name's Rendel.  I'm sure Master Trader Karrde told you I'd be coming."

                "Yes, he did," Mara answered.  Confidence, good.  She hoped her lawyer didn't notice the dark circles under her eyes.  She'd had another restless night.  Although maybe weakness was something the lawyer should see?  No.  She showed weakness to no one.  No one.

                "I'm sorry I didn't come sooner.  Talon hired me as soon as the story broke.  I first went to Corellia."

                "To check the story?" Mara asked, even though she knew the answer.

                "Yeah.  They've got circumstantial evidence.  _Carythimol_ is not too hard to find.  The blaster burn could have come from nearly any sidearm.  It's not even certain you were on planet at the time of Master Skywalker's death."

                "I didn't kill him," Mara said, forcefully.

                "I know that.  We've just got to convince the jury of that."  The way he said it sounded like convincing the Inner Council that she hadn't killed their precious hero would be easy.  Rendel pulled off the over shirt.  It was rather warm inside this small cell.  Mara nodded to herself.  So it was hot in here; it wasn't just her.  This morning it had been cold, now it was uncomfortably warm.

                "Great.  Where do we start?" Mara asked, pleasantly.  _Yeah, everything's just fine.  I won't be executed like some criminal stupid enough to get caught._  She really wanted to snap at the man, tell him to work harder to get her out of the prison, but what would Rendel do?  She didn't want to risk alienating the lawyer—after all, she needed him to get her off the murder charge.

                "Let's just retrace your steps, okay?  Twenty days ago, what happened that day?"

                Mara thought back.  "Nothing, really.  Some business, that's about it."

                Rendel glanced down at the data reader in his hands.

                "You bought a blaster?  A DL series.  DL-79.  Who'd you buy it from, and where is it now?"

                "I bought it from an acquaintance.   I tried it out, and I wasn't impressed.  Really, BlasTech has had many better models."

                "Where is it now?"

                "I gave it back."

                "Why isn't that seen on your credit record?  Did he refund it?"

                "Next time I go into the shop, I can get anything of equal price for free."

                "Okay.  So you gave it back, because you weren't impressed."

                _A true lawyer,_ Mara thought wryly.  _He has to repeat everything I say._  "Yes."

                Corran Horn stood in front of the view port, staring blindly at the transports beyond his room.  He barely saw them.  All he could think of was Master Skywalker.  Luke and the red head.  Luke had helped him so much.  Helped him reclaim his heritage, as a Halcyon Jedi.  Helped him rescue Mirax, his love and wife.  And what did Skywalker get in return?  A blaster in a dark alley.

                Corran knew Mara didn't kill him.  He knew the former Imperial assassin too well.  Jade had lingering effects of the Emperor's influence, but nothing that drastic.  She'd gotten past all that.

                Corran felt light hands on his shoulders, jerking him back to the present.  He turned around.

                Mirax smiled sadly at him.  "Still thinking about Luke and Mara?"

                "Yeah.  I mean, during the war, everything happened so quickly.  When someone died, there was no time to mourn them.  We had to keep going."

                "It was terrible," his wife concluded.  "I know."

                "Mara didn't kill him."  He shook his head and ran his fingers through his short brown hair.  "But how can I prove it?  They'll want proof."

                Mirax kissed him.  "You'll think of something.  I knew I didn't marry a stupid man."

                "Yeah."

                Ghent leaned back and stretched.  Karrde had wanted him to look into Mara's records, searching for anything that could be used against her.  The teenager guessed it was so Talon would have an idea of what the prosecuting attorneys would use.  Other than that, the slicer had no idea.  He'd searched for any proof that Mara had smuggled materials off any world, but that had come up empty.  Trader Jade was extremely clever.  As was everyone else in Karrde's organization.  You had to have brains—and know how to use them—to survive in the best smuggler's organization, or, as it was officially known, Intelligence gathers.  Whatever.

                All this searching shit bored the computer slicer.  He was supposed to slice into systems, create and break encrypts.  He wasn't some low-key flunky who had no special skills.  But Karrde thought this was important, and Karrde was the one who supplied the computers and equipment.

                All sorts of information flashed by on the holoscreen, and Ghent skimmed though it.  Some of the information was through sludge-news tabloids.  One article caught his attention.

                Mara, smuggling weapons?

                She hadn't smuggled weapons for years.  There was too much of a risk, and nowhere near enough money in that business.  And this article spoke of a recent event, where Mara Jade was spotted on Corellia with a group suspected of illegal weapons trafficking.

                But Mara hadn't been on Corellia on that date.

                Hell, she'd been on the other side of the galaxy, then, Ghent confirmed, glancing at her schedule for the past year.  What the…?

                He made a note of it to mention this to Talon.  Hell, maybe this was actually important.


	5. Chapter 5

**NOTHING STAYS THE SAME**

**CHAPTER FIVE**

                The red-haired woman sauntered up to Luke Skywalker.  He was down on his knees, head hanging.  His bruised chest rose, his gasps for air loud in the mostly empty room.  His hands were cuffed behind him, much too tightly, and each gasp of air caused the tingling of energy to run through his arms and body, not enough to stun him, just hurt, like tiny needles being jabbed into his skin.  He was dressed only in gray pants, his naked chest glistening with sweat and blood under the single glow panel.  Luke glared up at the lithe woman through his bangs, his hair once again too long to befit a Jedi and former Rogue Squadron pilot.

                "What do you want?" he demanded, between gasps.

                "You will find out in time," the red-haired woman answered cryptically.  She reached and grabbed the man's chin, jerking it up so he faced her.

                _"Luke!"_

                Leia jolted upright in bed.  _"Luke!_" she whispered hoarsely.  Tears were pressing against her closed eyelids.  When would the nightmares stop?  All she saw when she went to sleep was Mara Jade torturing her brother.  Leia lay back on the bed, trying to blink away the tears.  She didn't want to believe that Luke was dead.  Her twin, his death caused a void in her heart.  She didn't feel like he was really dead but that hole in her heart showed her he was gone.

                Her anger rose.  Her brother had shown only understanding and compassion to Mara Jade.  He taught her what he knew even after her threats on his life.  Her brother had been too trusting.

                "She bought a blaster a couple of weeks ago.  A DL-79 series.  New type, nearly silent.  You can barely hear it, just the sizzling of flesh."  Cardinal smiled.  "This is perfect."

                "There's something that bothers me, though," Shalloh complained.

                The woman turned towards him impatiently.  "And what is that?" she demanded.

                "The eye."

                "The eye?"

                "Yeah.  Look, Jade is a professional, right?  Yeah," he answered himself.  "Taught by Palpy's best.  She injected the _carth_, _carlth_…the stuff—" he guessed he'd had a little too much to drink, "—then blasted his face off.  But why leave the eye?  She'd had to guess we'd be able to ID Skywalker from the retina."

                "It was an accident, obviously.  Our little Imp made a mistake, and we'll nail her ass for it."

                "Well, okay.  I guess I see it that way."

                Cardinal lifted her glass up in a silent toast.  A few seconds later Shalloh mimicked her gesture.  The trial would begin in four days.

                Mara couldn't believe the lights were already on.  Hadn't she just gone to sleep?  The morning's meal was shoved through a thin slit in the door.  Mara turned away from it.  She felt like shit as it was, and knew that eating would only be worse.  She turned towards the wall and tried to go back to sleep.  

                She heard the door slide open, but she didn't look to see who it was.  What would it matter?  All these people, they all actually thought _she_ killed Luke.

                "Mara?" Talon asked.  He didn't know whether she was awake or asleep.  He didn't know how anyone could sleep with the bright lights that were on.

                She turned her head slightly and sat up.

                Talon felt guilty at seeing his second-in-command like this.  It just wasn't her.

                "They've scheduled your trial to start in three days.  You wanted me to tell you as soon as I found out."

                Mara didn't say anything.

                "Mara, you've got to believe me.  Rendel and I, we're working as hard as we can.  We _won't _let the New Rep win, okay?"

                "He's dead.  They think I killed him."

                "Mara—"

                "No, you don't understand!  They're going to have me _murdered_ because they think I can't let go of old grudges!  That's it.  They want me _dead!_  Karrde, I _did not kill him!_"

                "Mara, I know, I believe you—"

                "But they're going to kill me anyway!"   Mara was already off the bed and she grabbed the closest thing to her—the small sheet off the bed—and threw it across the room.  It hit the wall and then piled onto the floor.  Anger she could deal with.  Fear she could deal with.  But knowing that her own death was near for something she actually didn't do?  That, she couldn't accept.

                "Why don't they just shoot me now, and get it over with?" she asked, bitterly.

                "Are you done with the tantrum?" Talon asked coldly.

                "Excuse me?" Mara asked.  Who the hell did he think he was?  He had no idea—

                "I see I have your attention.  Look, Mara.  We're doing the best we can, okay?  I have so many people on this case.  Rendel's the best in the business, and I'm not lying.   We're not giving up yet, and neither should you."

                Mara just stared at her employer, and finally glanced away.  "I just wish that they'd get it over with."

                Karrde watched her.  He'd been imprisoned before, on the _Chimera_.  He remembered the fear that he'd be tortured for the information on the location of the _Katana_ fleet.  He remembered thinking no one would come for him, and when he had outlived his usefulness to the Empire, he'd be executed.  Then Skywalker and Mara had shown up.  They'd rescued him, and he had in turn given the _Katana_ fleet to the New Republic.  That the New Rep was too slow to cash in was not his fault.

                But the New Republic Intelligence headquarters…that was _impossible_ to get into.  Without a moment's hesitation he would put together a team to get Mara out.  But he knew that they wouldn't all get in and out.  And the business side effects.  The New Republic would most certainly put out a bounty on his head, as well as many others in his organization.  Could he risk their lives as well?

                Would Mara?

                Talon sighed to himself.  Mara was willing to risk her own life to rescue those of his crew.  She wouldn't approve of it.  She wouldn't allow him to do this.

                "Rendel should be here, soon," he said, slamming his hand against the door.

                Corran had time off from his duties as Rogue Nine in the Republic's best X-wing squadron.  He appreciated this, also knowing that Wedge Antilles, as one of Luke's close friends, was also having trouble dealing with this.  No one had really expected the Jedi Master to die like this.

                He hopped out of the airspeeder and walked through the doors of the New Republic Intelligence.  He could see the guards standing around, more around than usual, but none of them stopped him on his way to the front office.

                "Hi," he said to the young man sitting behind the desk.  "I was hoping I'd be able to talk to my friend, Iella.  She said that I could drop by whenever."  He was stretching the truth on the last part.  He knew Iella would be busy, but he didn't know who else he could go to for this information.  "Iella Wessiri Antilles.  I'm sure you know her."

                "_Director_ Wessiri Antilles is in a meeting right now.  What is your name?"

                "Corran Horn."

                The younger man typed the name into the computer.  "Oh, right, sir.  The Director should be finished in a few minutes, if you'd like to wait out here."

                Corran hid a smile—one of the first real ones since he'd learned about Luke's demise.  He guessed he'd acquired a good reputation.  The boy had suddenly become polite once Corran mentioned his name.  _Works every time._

                After about twenty minutes, longer than the secretary had mentioned, Corran saw Iella walk past one of the offices in the back.

                "Iella!" he called, and his long-time friend turned around.  She smiled briefly.  "What can I help you with, flyboy?"

                Corran walked over to her.  "I have a favor to ask."

                "You didn't dye your hair green again, did you?" she asked.

                He had to concentrate to keep from blushing.  _That_ had _not_ been his fault.  "Doesn't look like it, no.  I was wondering if you'd let me in to see Mara."

                Iella stopped.  "What?"

                "I want to talk to Mara."

                "No."

                "Iella, I have info that could be vital to this investigation."

                "It's a trial now.  Everyone was eager to help, and all the information needed is already put together.  If you have something, tell me."

                "I need to talk to her.  I'm not joking around, Iella."

                She looked at her former partner.  "I'm not saying you are, Corran.  But I can't just let anyone in there.  There are only three people let in—Lieutenant Calinoa, Talon Karrde, and Rendel Alino.  That's it.  She's dangerous, and she's unpredictable.  I don't want her trying anything with you in there."

                "Mara wouldn't do that."

                "Yeah, well, some say she wouldn't kill Luke Skywalker, but that turned out false, too."  Iella ran a slender hand through her shoulder-length hair.  

                "Iella—"

                "Corran, don't.  All right?  I won't let you in. I'm sorry, but I won't."

                As his old partner walked away, Corran cursed silently.  It was true; he couldn't blame her for doing her job.  He just wished that she would be a little more lenient.


	6. Chapter 6

**NOTHING STAYS THE SAME**

**CHAPTER SIX**

 "Talon!"

                The smuggler turned around when he heard someone call his name.  There was a crowd of beings behind him, and he turned to continue walking.  He was supposed to meet with Mara in less than ten minutes. 

                "Hey, Karrde!"

                Impatiently, Talon spun around.  No one in the large group seemed to be paying any attention to him.  _Who the hell…?_

                Talon turned back to continue walking to the NRI building.

                "Talon, I asked you to wait up!"  For the third time, the smuggler turned around.  This time he saw the speaker: a short dark-brown haired man, with vivid green eyes.  Karrde recognized the pilot and also figured out that the reason he didn't see the man was because of his short stature in a group of normal sized beings.

                "Corran Horn," he said by way of greeting.

                "Yeah, Talon.  I tried to get in to talk to Mara, but they're not going to let me.  I need you to do me a favor."

                "Yeah?"

                "Tell Mara that I know she didn't kill Luke.  Ask her if it's all right for me to tell Iella why."

                "Ask her if it's okay for you to tell the Director?  If it helps her, go ahead."

                "No, I want you to ask her.  Here, this is the code for my comlink.  Once you get an answer, tell me."

                "Okay.  I'm sure she'll be glad for the help."

                "I'm not so sure, but I hope she'll take it."

                The pilot disappeared back into the crowd, and Talon shrugged and continued on his way.  Damn, he was late now.

                Talon waited while the intelligence agent frisked him down.  Even with all the high-tech security the NRI enjoyed, they still relied on the oldest way of weapon searching.  The reinforced durasteel door slid open and Talon walked into Mara's cell.  Rendel Alino glanced up at him and they both went into the small conference room across from Mara's room.

                "You just missed the Princess," he said quietly.

                Karrde lifted his eyebrow at that.  "What did Organa Solo say?"

                "She came in here very angry.  I was nearly certain that Madam Organa Solo was going to slap Mara sooner or later.  But Jade just sat there and took it.  She didn't say anything, and that just cause the Princess to leave.  I don't think I've ever seen Organa Solo flustered before, but she sure was just then."

                "When did she leave?"

                "About seven or eight minutes ago.  Mara hasn't snapped out of it, though."

                Karrde was confused.  Rendel was right; Mara seemed off in her own world.  "What else happened?"

                Both men kept their voices down.  "The Lieutenant came in, showed Jade some holos from the murder.  Shit, Talon, she just went as white as a ghost."

                "They showed her Luke's body?"

                "Yeah.  That wasn't the worst I've ever seen, Talon, and I have a feeling she's seen worse."

                "But those weren't of her best friend, Rendel.  You don't understand.  Mara and Luke may have started off rocky, but they've gotten really close.  Mara's saved his ass countless times."

                Rendel nodded.  "I gathered as much from our conversations.  If she doesn't snap out of this soon, though," the lawyer nodded towards his client, "Then I'm going to get a med droid in here.  This doesn't look good, Talon."

                "What, so he can drug her?  No."  Talon walked over to the red-haired woman and knelt down in front of her.  "Mara?  Mara, wake up.  It's me, Talon."

                Mara inhaled, a long shuddering breath.  "They must have put something in the food.  I'm falling apart."  Her eyes flicked to Talon, and the older smuggler couldn't realize how difficult even that was, to drag herself away from her thoughts.

                _He's dead.  By the gods, he's really dead!_ Mara's mind told her.  _He can't be dead.  But you've seen his body now.  He's dead._  She knew she was still very pale, but she was already reaching into her reserved energy to keep her attention where she needed it.  She had never believed that anyone after the Emperor could affect her like this.  When the Emperor had died, she'd stopped breathing, and only through some miracle of the Force did her heart begin beating again.  But Luke's death was driving her insane.  She hadn't realized how much she relied on him, on his Force presence, to ground her.

                _I'd know if he were dead,_ she promised herself.

                "Hey, Mara, you still with us?" Talon asked.

                "Yeah, of course," Mara answered irritably.

                "Corran Horn wanted me to give you a message.  You know him?"

                "Yeah, he was at the Academy while I was there."

                "Horn's a Jedi?"

                "Yeah.  He's a good man to have by your side.  What did he want?"  _Good, concentrate on something, Mara.  Keep concentrating, and the doubts will be pushed aside…for now._

                "He wanted you to know that he's on our side, and he wants permission to tell the Director why."

                "_No._"  The woman shook her head vehemently.  "You tell him to forget it."

                Her reaction startled the two men.  "What?"

                "Tell Horn 'No.'"

                "But Mara—"

                "_No,_ Karrde.  He has no business saying any of that."

                "What is this about?" Rendel asked, speaking up for the first time since he and the smuggler had re-entered the room.

                "None of your business.  Nothing."

                "Mara."

                "No."  This time her protest was quieter, but deadlier.

                "Fine."

                Talon talked to her a little longer, but Mara found it more difficult to pay attention.

                _Horn means well,_ her mind told her.

                _No._

                _He can help you get these charges dropped._

                _No one would believe him…or me._

                Corran already knew what the answer would be when his comlink beeped, but he answered anyway.  "Horn here."

                "Horn, it's Karrde."

                "She said no."  It wasn't a question.

                "Yeah."  There was a long pause, and then Karrde spoke up again.  "Look, can I ask what this is about?"

                "No.  If Mara chooses to tell you, then she can.  But try to get her to let me, okay?"

                "I'll try."

                "Thanks."  The Rogue pilot flipped the comlink off.  "Damn it, Mara!  Just let me do this!" he said out loud. 

                "She's refusing to help, isn't she?" his wife asked.  She was packing some clothes before she left on a run to Bothawui, and then to Nar Shadaa, though her second destination was not very well known.

                "Yeah."

                "Well, Corran, I hate to say this, but she's got to live her own life."

                "And die?"

                "Everyone dies, sooner or later, Corran.  You know I hate to say this, but it's true."

                "I won't let her die.  I promised Luke I'd take care of her."

                "I know.  And a promise is a promise."  Mirax did a good impression of her husband.  "I've got to go, but I'll be back in five days, all right?  My father's watching over Valin, so don't worry about that."

                "Bye, sweetheart."

                "Bye.  You take care of Corran, okay Whistler?"  Corran's green and white droid warbled in response.

                After the door slid shut behind his wife, Corran muttered quietly.  "A promise is a promise."


	7. Chapter 7

**NOTHING STAYS THE SAME**

**CHAPTER SEVEN**

                Talon Karrde sifted through the notes on his desk.  He'd neglected his organization for four weeks now.  Four weeks Mara had been imprisoned.  His business had held up very well, even with his inattention.   That was the real sign of a good business: even when he was too busy, it still held up.  And still expanding.  On the top were some weekly notices stating the gross total for the previous week.  He glanced through those and found the notes from Ghent.

                "Smuggling weapons?" Karrde asked himself out loud.  "Mara's never smuggled weapons for this organization."  _And she told me that it was too risky to try even on her own.  And this is a recent article._

                He tapped the comlink on his desk.  "Ghent, it's Talon.  I want to talk to you about your research.  Come on up here."

                "Yes sir."

                Five minutes later the kid walked into Talon's office.  The first thing the smuggler noticed was that Ghent had just walked into the office.  But Karrde knew that the only way the kid could have gotten in was if he had typed in a command letting the door be opened by anyone.  And he knew he hadn't.

                "Ghent, if you're going to illegally slice into your employer's office codes, at least try to pretend you didn't."

                "I didn't do anything—"

                "I didn't call you here to yell at you, kid.  Sit down.  Now, have you found anything else about this Mara look-alike?"

                "Not really."

                "Did you try looking up the weapon smugglers?"

                "Not really."

                "Are you going to look these up?"

                "Not really—I mean, yes, sir.  I'll do that right away."

                 "Good.  Keep me informed.  This might help us out."

                After the computer slicer left, Talon turned towards his communications center in the corner of his office.  In less than a minute, the connection was already established and a holo of a pretty young woman appeared.

                "Doctor Tavison."

                "Ah, Talon Karrde.  I assume you're calling for the results?"

                "Yes, please."

                "You're lucky.  I've been very busy, but you're a friend, so I pushed yours to the front.  Okay, I'm sending the full report to you, but long story short, the eye your friend left behind, it's been scarred."

                "How?"

                "I don't know.  Possibly from a recent surgery.  Did Skywalker have any eye problems?"

                "No.  Not that I know of."  Tavison knew that the comment meant that no problems at all.  Things were certain when she spoke with the leader of the galaxy's best intelligence organization.

                "It could have been when he was beaten, but I doubt it.  If it were from that, then it would have had to happen as soon as they captured him, and he would have had to be in their custody for several days.  Well, I guess with the Force it wouldn't have had to be so long."

                "Maybe it happened before he was captured.  Could it have happened sometime on Yavin 4?"

                Tavison laughed.  "I seriously doubt it.  It healed wrong.  I mean, it looks fine from the outside, but I perform surgery on eyes, remember?  This man wouldn't have been able to see out of the eye at all."

                Talon leaned forward.  "So, wait.  Kali, do you think that someone could have performed the eye surgery on him just to—"

                "Frame Jade?  Yeah.   Easily."

                "Will you testify on Mara's behalf?"

                "Of course, Talon.  I know Mara.  She's got a good head on her shoulders.  Don't let her know I said that, though," the doctor added.  Tavison brushed back a stray piece of silver-black hair.  "Just tell me when to be there, and I'll come."

                "Great.  Come down now."

                "I'll be there."

                "Mara, we have some information," Talon said the next morning.  "Good news."

                "Great, I could use some."  Mara had a splitting headache, but she was now allowed any kind of medication against it.  Liability, or something like that.  _Cruel and unusual punishment_, Mara thought.  But then again, she was also aware that the Intelligence agents must have known _something_ about her past, so they would err on the cautious.  

                "I have a friend, a Doctor Kali Tavison.  She's offered to testify for you.  She found some scarring on the eye, and she says that it can mean that this guy underwent surgery on his retinas."

                "You mean you guys think that this isn't Luke?  That someone faked Luke's death?"

                "Yeah.  They picked some stranger with blond hair and the right build up off the street, tortured him, changed his eyes, and killed him."

                "Damn.  But why the hell would someone try that shit?"

                "Someone's trying to frame you."

                "I kind of figured that out already, Karrde," Mara replied testily.

                "Now we have proof."

                "Will it hold up in court is the question."

                "Yes.  It will help."  Karrde watched his second in command.  If he hadn't been with her daily for her entire imprisonment, he wouldn't have been able to tell a difference between the Mara from before and the one now.  But all that he'd seen only proved that Mara was only human.           

                "And again I say 'no.' Didn't you tell him that?"

                "I did, but he just wanted to double-check."

                 "You can tell him that he can stuff that idea up his ass because it's not going anywhere else."

                "I'll be sure to tell him that."  Karrde successfully hid a smile.  Now, _this_ was the real Mara Jade.

                "Good.  Anything else?"

                "Not right now.  Rendel should be here soon.  See if you can get rid of that headache."

                "Yeah, well, I'm trying."

                Mara leaned against the wall, tucking her knees up under her chin.  The trial would begin in two days.  She'd be stared at by people who condemned her for just living her own life.

                Later that night, Mara heard a scuffling outside her door, and she turned to see who it was with some interest.  A late night visitor?  The door slid open, and Mara backed away.

                A being about her height stood in the doorway, a cloak covering it's body.

                "Who are you?" Mara demanded.

                The person said nothing, and everything slowed down for Mara.  The being pulled a blaster from the folds of his or her cloak.  Mara ducked low and swept her leg under the other person, who jumped up and away from the former assassin.  Mara was back up on her feet, muscles tensed, ready to move.  The other person aimed the blaster again and snapped off a shot.  Before they even completely depressed the trigger, Mara dodged aside and brought a snap kick to their chest.  She could feel the body armor the person, woman, Mara realized, wore.  Mara lunged for the blaster, grabbing the barrel and pushing it aside as another laser bolt burned into the wall.

                Mara could hear footsteps outside the door, and knew the guards would be too late.  She brought her elbow into the woman's face, snapping her head back and the woman grabbed Mara's arm, twisting it up and behind her body.  Mara moved with it, keeping the woman from breaking her arm. Mara knew she was up against a professional, one with almost the same amount of expertise as her.

                The woman lunged towards her, panic making her movements jerky and not thought out.  Mara grabbed the other woman's arm, pulling her closer, and then brought her fist down across the back of her neck, stunning the woman.  Mara shoved the woman down onto the ground, bringing her head back.

                "Who sent you?"

                No answer.

                "Who the hell sent you?" Mara shouted.  She pulled back on her head further.  The woman had a mask on over her face, and Mara put her fingers under the mask, and began to pull it off.  The door slid open and the last thing Mara could remember was shouting "No!" and then falling into the darkness.

                "Miss Jade?  Follow the light with your eyes."

                Mara heard the cool voice of an expert.  She forced her eyes open, a task that seemed to take all her energy.  She could see the light flickering across the wall, and she watched it go by.

                "Can you hear me?  Nod if you can."

                Mara nodded.  "I'm fine," she tried to say, but the words came out slurred.

                "Just a minute.  All right, can you feel your legs?"

                She waited a moment before answering.  "Yes, I'm fine.  You don't have to go through all that crap with me.  Who the hell stunned me?"  She knew that she'd been shot with a stun blast.  She had always recovered fairly quickly from it, but even still she was glad that her words were understood.

                "One of the guards."

                "And why?"

                "They thought you were the intruder."

                "Oh, shit.  Where is that bitch?"

                "I don't know.  After they hit you, she got past them.  She's long gone."

                "You let her get away?" Mara asked incredulously.  "This is the damned NRI _headquarters._  You let someone in to kill me—and then let her back out again?"

                "None of our people even remember her walking by.  The only way we knew how she got in was the holocameras.  We have no idea how this happened—our guards just had this collective gap in their memories."

                _The Force.  I had a Force-sensitive assassin.  Shit._

                "My question is: how did you beat her?" the man asked.  Mara was acutely aware of the holocams in her own room.

                "Oh, just something I picked up somewhere.  Did she leave anything behind?"

                "Nothing except two dead guards.  Broke their necks.  Their blasters didn't even clear the holsters."

                _So, she used the Force to enter the building…I wonder whether she realized that they had ysalimiri surrounding me.  She killed the guards because she couldn't use the Force to blank their memories._

_                That's why she panicked.  She no longer could access the Force and her prey—me—wasn't totally helpless.  She wasn't as professional as I originally thought._

_                So the real question is, who would send an assassin after me?_

                Corellia: one of the five inhabitable planets in the Corellian system, all of which orbit around Corell.  Home to unknown numbers of "former smugglers" and other scum of the universe, including more famous people than many other systems combined.  Homeplanet of Garm bel Iblis, Crix Madine, Han Solo, and many others, like New Republic pilots Wedge Antilles and Corran Horn.

                From her window she could see the stars above, and could point out Imperial Center's location easily.  No matter how long ago its name had been changed back to Coruscant, she would always know it by its true, honorable name—Imperial Center.  Soon it would be back under Imperial rule.  She would make certain of it.  Time didn't matter.  No matter what those alien-loving New Republic assholes did to the planet, she had faith that the Imperials could fix it.

                She believed herself to be the only one strong enough to capture and hold the capital planet.  She knew it.  Without a strong, mentally superior leader, the Imperial regime would fail.

                She had been a young, vigorous, determined woman.  Now she was mature, but still determined.  She had promised her lover that she would make sure the Imperial spirit would dominate the galaxy before she died.

                But her body was slowing.  She was no longer the youthful woman she'd been.  Silver streaks were evident in her red hair.  Her eyes were still bright, but the color wasn't as vivid as they'd once been.  She knew she was aging, and that if she were to see the Imperials rule again, she had to move quickly.


	8. Chapter 8

**NOTHING STAYS THE SAME**

**CHAPTER EIGHT**

                Corran fumbled for the comlink.  He had no idea who it would be, but anyone who called at this gods-forsaken hour of the morning had better have something important to tell him.

                "Horn, here," he answered, yawning.

                "Corran, this is Karrde."

                "Yeah, Talon?  What's up?  Did she change her mind?" Corran was suddenly awake, and all thoughts of sleeping flew from his mind.

                "Someone tried to kill Mara tonight.  I don't care what she says, but whatever you have, take it and run with it.  We've got to get Mara out of prison as soon as possible.  She's not safe there."

                "I copy.  I'll do it immediately.  Talk to you later, Talon."  Corran flipped the comlink shut.  Whistler, his ever-trusty astromech, rolled into the room and beeped at the pilot.  "We've got work to do, buddy."

                "_There are rumors that there has been an attempted assassination of Mara Jade.  As many of you recall, Master Trader Jade is currently held in custody in the New Republic Intelligence Headquarters pending her trial.  She is the alleged murderer of Jedi Master Luke Skywalker.  The Intelligence Director, Iella Wessiri Antilles, has made no comment on this sequence of events._"

                Leia was sipping from a mug of caf when the newsbreak came on the HoloNet.  She stared at the Devaronian reporter as he recapped the situation.

                An unnamed source claimed that an assassin had come for Mara.  Why?  Was Mara only _part_ of a plot to eliminate her brother?  Maybe the former Emperor's Hand was going to reveal everything.  That would have been a good reason to try and kill Jade.  So that mean that Mara wasn't the only guilty one.

                What had Luke done to truly piss off Mara?  Leia had been so sure the red-head had come to terms with her past.  Luke had assured his sister that Mara was not a danger to the New Republic.  Leia had believed him, mostly because Mara had risked her life to save her twins.  Didn't that mean anything?

                After Mara had saved Leia's family, an Imperial agent implicated her in organizing the attack.  It was one of Thrawn's plans to discredit the former Emperor's Hand, so that the New Republic wouldn't trust her.  Could this be another such attack?

                No.  The Empire was dead.

                The communication center beeped to get her attention.  Leia stood up and walked towards it.  It was a secure channel.  Slightly puzzled, knowing that it wasn't her secretary, she answered.

                "Hello?"

                "Madam Organa Solo?" the brown-haired man asked.  Leia recognized him.  Corran Horn had been a friend of Luke's.  Leia remembered talking to the pilot on Yavin 4.

                "Corran, hello.  How are you?" she asked politely.  _Why would the pilot use a secure channel?_

                "Have you seen the news yet?" he asked, ignoring her question.

                "Yes. What did you want to talk about?"

                "Can we meet somewhere?"

                Leia wondered at his abrupt switching of topics.  "Uh, well, yes.  For you, I can make some time.  What is this about?"

                "NRI Headquarters, 1100 this morning?"

                "Okay.  I'll be there.  I may be a minute late—"

                "That's fine.  This is important."  The Corellian cut off the channel.

                Talon saw the heightened security as he climbed out of the airspeeder.  As he walked into the headquarters, he glanced around.  Had the Guards changed anything inside?  Yes.  It might not be overly noticeable, but there were most likely Guards waiting just around the corner and near Mara's cell.  The NRI probably sold tickets to Mara's trial, so they couldn't lose the star of the show to poor security.

                Mara was sitting on the edge of the bed, her back to the wall.  She was alert, more so than during his other trips.

                "Have you found anything out yet, Talon?" was the first thing out of her mouth.

                "No," Talon regretted to tell her.  She was locked up with yet another person gunning for her ass—someone bolder than the Senators, who had the money to send assassins after her.

                She scowled.  "Yeah, well, whoever this person is, they sent a damned Force-sensitive assassin after me.  You know how rare those are?"

                _Force sensitive?_ Talon asked himself.  _It fits, though.  Just a harmless mind blank.  Skywalker used to do that, didn't he?_

                "Maybe they think you know something?"

                "But what?"

                "I don't know."  Then the smuggler remembered something.  "Mara, you've never dealt in weapons, have you?"  That was the mild way of asking whether she ever smuggled weapons.

                "No.  The pay is good, but not enough for the risks.  Why?"

                "Because a friend found some information saying you did.  Several different sources."

                "Me?"

                "Yeah."

                Mara paused.  "You think this has anything to do with Luke and everything?"

                "Maybe."  Talon found himself wondering briefly just what Corran was going to do.

                "Madam Organa Solo," Corran greeted Leia as she walked through the door.

                "Call me Leia.  Corran, what is all this about?" she asked tiredly.  She'd hurried through a meeting with two dignitaries, both of which wanted to talk to her for no particular reason but felt that they should be given all the time in the world.

                "I need to talk to you about Mara."

                "What about her?"

                "She didn't kill Luke."

                "The evidence says that she did.  Corran, I don't have _time_ for everyone to tell me their opinions on this.  If it's something important, you can tell Mara's lawyer."  Leia was ready to leave.  She knew she'd wasted her time coming all the way to the NRI Headquarters.  Why would Corran want to meet here, anyway?  Wouldn't he have felt more at home at the Rogue Squadron hangar?

                "She didn't kill him, though, Leia.  You've got to believe me.  The media has taken this _rumor_ and run with it.  Mara will never get a fair trial, everyone knows that.  All these people, they've decided that Mara is all their troubles in a human being, and they want her dead."

                "I'm not going to listen to a lecture."  Leia went to walk out the door, but Corran grabbed her arm.

                "Listen to me, Leia.  You're the Chief of State, the President of the entire New Republic.  You can stop this."

                "She killed my brother.  I would never stop it.  She's getting what's coming to her.  Now let go of me."  Leia was surprised by the heat and vehemence in her own voice.

                "Leia, I swear to you, she didn't kill your brother.  It took her a while, but it's like Luke said.  If Mara was ever going to really kill him, at all, she wouldn't have told you.  Why announce her intentions to a person who could stop her?  Mara may be a lot of things, but she sure as hell isn't stupid."

                Leia hesitated.  "How did you know about her telling me that?  That was before I even knew you."

                "Luke and I were friends, Leia.  We were real close.  When Mirax was kidnapped, he helped me.  Damn, when he finally came out of his cave after Callista deserted him, he came to _me_ to talk!"

                "I didn't know that," Leia admitted.  She looked up at Corran.  He could see in her brown eyes that she wanted something to believe.  She didn't _really_ want to think Mara murdered her brother.  "What else did he tell you?"

                He knew that he had her attention.  "Come with me," he said, leading the former Princess out of the room and down the hall.  He knew where Iella's office was.  He'd checked before he called Leia that morning as to when his friend would be in her office.  "Iella, we need to see the items taken from Mara Jade."

                "Excuse me?"

                "Iella, just do it.  All the stuff you confiscated off her person."

                Iella looked at her old partner, wondering what he was going to do.  Her eyes flicked to Leia's, and the shorter woman nodded.  "All right."  She leaned over the desk and spoke into the comm system for an assistant to bring the items to her.  The few minutes passed in silence before the door slid open and a young woman carried in a box.  

                "Anything else, Director?" she asked.

                "No, thanks, Tarin."

                Corran immediately began pulling things out of the box and placing them carefully on Iella's desk.

                "Corran, what the hell is this about?" Iella asked.  She knew her partner's personality—she'd worked for years with him, and she also knew that he liked to talk things out.  They used to walk through the crimes step-by-step, to figure out the why and the how of the murders.  But this was different.  He knew what he was looking for.

                _Damn it, where is it?_ Corran asked himself.  _I know her too well, she _had_ to have been wearing it._  He searched through the flightsuit she'd been wearing, checking the pockets.  They'd pulled her small hand blaster off of her, a vibroblade, and her lightsaber, well, Luke's old lightsaber.  Comlink, portable datacard reader, datacards, miscellaneous items she'd kept on her utility belt…She'd never been one to wear jewelry, but he _knew_ she'd have it—

                "Here," he said, with no small note of triumph.  He dropped the necklace into Leia's hands.  Leia looked at it.  It was a silver chain with a strange looking ring on it.  The ring was a plain cut, it was the gem it was made of that was strange.  It started a pale yellow and blossomed into a brilliant scarlet.  Leia stared at it.  Hadn't she seen this before?  Yes, Luke had shown it to her once.  It looked exactly like the ring his Aunt Beru had given him…


	9. Chapter 9

**NOTHING STAYS THE SAME**

**CHAPTER NINE**

                The Princess' eyes narrowed.  "Explain."

                Corran took a deep breath.  _Okay, I'm already in deep shit with Mara, and I know this won't help that.  But I made a promise, and I will keep it, damn it!  Why doesn't Mara understand?_  "I met Luke several years ago.  It was right before us Rogues went…rogue, you know, the Thyferra campaign?  Yeah, well, Luke explained to me that I was the grandson of a Jedi Knight, and he invited me later on to come to the Academy.  He seemed really depressed, although he hid it really well.  Did I mention that I'm the strongest with telepathy, and stuff like that?  Anyhow, I went to the Academy, and while I was there, Mara showed up.  The change in Luke's attitude was noticeable, but I guess the others just kind of put it to getting his mind off of Gantoris, and Exar Kun.  I didn't say anything to Luke about it, but I talked to Mara, and I actually liked her, something that surprised me, because, well, everyone's heard about her being an Imperial.  Then she left, after making sure Luke was okay, and she even asked me to keep an eye on him, to make sure he'd be all right."  Corran realized that he was rambling, but he didn't have anything really prepared to tell Leia.  _Oh, yeah, by the way, Princess, your brother was going to get married and he didn't bother to tell you._

                "Even after I left the Academy, and after Luke helped me find Mirax, I still wondered about that.  I mean, you know your brother, Leia.  Even though he's really nice, he always has this sadness to him.  There's something bothering him.  The next few years, I kind of kept an eye on them, and there was a definite difference whenever he was around her.  They always bantered back and forth, playing around.  I figured that they were really close friends, and I was right.  And Mara was also relaxed around him.  Around most people, she's on edge.  She thinks that everyone is judging her for what she did, and, well, now with this trial, it's true.  But she knew that Luke wouldn't judge her.  You know the old saying, 'Opposites attract'?  Well, it happened here.

                "I'm not really sure what changed things, but before Callista showed up, I was at the Academy, just kind of brushing up, and I was working with a kid who had talents kind of like mine.  Not as strong as mine, but he was pretty good."  Iella recognized the pilot's ego behind the last statement.  "Well, I was just talking to Luke and he asked me about Mirax.  After a few minutes of easy conversation, I turned the tables on him.  I don't know why I did it, but I asked about him and Mara.  He laughed at me, telling me that I was crazy to even think that he and Mara…Well, it was strange.  One minute he was trying to convince me I was making things up, and then he asked me what he should do.  To tell the truth, I think one reason he gave in so quickly was because I'd brought a bottle of Whyren's Reserve with me.  I don't think your brother drinks that much, Leia, because we split that bottle, and I doubt he remembered much of that night.  Well, I told him that if he liked her, he should tell her.  He said he valued their friendship too much to try anything like that.  He didn't want to move too quickly with her, to scare her off.  That's about all I remember of that conversation.  I wasn't exactly completely sober myself."

                Iella laughed.  "Better not let your Rogue buddies hear that.  Drunk after only half a bottle of Corellian whiskey?  They'd disown you."

                "_Anyways,_" Corran continued, pausing slightly to glare at his old friend, "I waited a while, but nothing seemed to be happening.  I was kind of waiting for a bombshell to go off, but it was like nothing changed.  So I decided to take things into my own hands.  I mean, if Luke was too chicken to ask Mara out, well, I might as well see Mara's reaction to it, right?  So I just _happened_ to go to the same…uh, hangout that she did, and we met up, we got caught up and all, just nice conversation.  After a few drinks, and this time I went easy on the drinking, I brought up the Academy, and I asked whether she'd be going back any time soon.  She answered with her usual laugh, and made some comment about how she would never voluntarily go there again.  All Skywalker was doing was refreshing her own Force lessons.  She knew how to use the Force as much as she wanted, and she didn't want to waste any more time there.  So I tried again.  I told her that I bet Luke was as bored with it as her.  I remembered that tidbit from another talk with Luke."

                "Luke was bored with teaching?" Leia asked, surprised.  That was the first time she'd spoken since Corran began talking.

                "I guess bored isn't exactly the right way to phrase it…he wanted action.  Even after he'd been told and he'd told others that 'A Jedi does not crave action or adventure,' he still craved it.  He thrived on the missions the New Rep sent him on.  He told me that he felt that teaching was something important, and that he knew he _had_ to teach the new generation of Jedi.  I don't know.  Mara could probably explain that better.  She understands him better than I ever will.

                "Where was I?  Oh, yeah, and I mentioned to her that Luke probably hated the Academy as much as she did.  And she looked at me like I had grown another head.  We talked about it a little more, and I was just getting to the part where I thought she should go to the Academy to save him from boredom, when guess who walks through the damned door?  Lando.  I couldn't figure out how he even figured out where Mara would be, but he walked through the door, and saw Mara, and so he came over to chat.  I excused myself from the table, and I've never seen Mara so pissed.  I swear, if looks could kill, then I would have died a horrible death right there.  Well, a few minutes later, she tosses her drink into his face and walks away.  I couldn't stop laughing at the poor guy.  

"Anyways, I began to doubt anything would really happen between them until I volunteered to drop supplies off at the Academy.  Mara was there, and then I picked up from some of the students that Luke was more relaxed than usual, always spending time with her.  The next day I had to leave, and I was nearly certain that they had both gotten smart.

"I don't know what happened between them, but they were apart for a while and then the Callista thing happened.  I really don't know why Luke fell for her.  He never wanted to talk about it.  After she left, I tried talking to him.  He needed to move on with his life.  I had really doubted that anything could happen between him and Mara now.  I mean, come on.  He turned away from her to go with another woman.  I just don't know.  This time Luke came to Coruscant—I'm sure you remember that trade summit, right, Leia?  You finally convinced your brother to come along?  He told me the only reason he decided to come was so he could have a good excuse to show up and talk to me."

Leia was no longer looking at Corran.  Instead she stared at a spot above the pilot's head, absorbing all this new information.  Surely Corran was exaggerating—Luke loved teaching.  Didn't he?

"That was about three months ago.  We had dinner over at the _Tr'oshn'ika_ _Inn_, and then he finally decided to bring up the topic of Mara.  I swear, I nearly fell off my chair when he did that.  I kept thinking, _So all hope is _not_ lost._  _Luke's finally gotten smart._  Luke admitted that he and Mara had been dating for couple of months.  He asked whether I thought he should take the next step and propose to her.  He said that she was _the _one, and he just wanted to know whether I thought he was making a big mistake."

"And so you told him to go on."

"Well, yeah.  I mean, anyone who really thinks about it knows that they are _perfect_ for each other, and so I told him to go for it.  He changed the subject to something about the Academy, and that's what we talked about for the rest of the meal.  But right before he left, he told me that he had just wanted my opinion.  He'd already proposed to Mara; she'd accepted.  I'm pretty sure that that time I _did_ fall of the damned chair.  He was still laughing as he walked out of the restaurant.  I guess it must have looked really funny to him: there I was, encouraging him to propose to her, and then it turns out he already did."

"Corran Horn, CorSec, Rogue pilot, matchmaker," Iella smiled.  "A man of many talents."

"Director Wessiri Antilles?" a disembodied voice asked from the comm system built into the desk.

"Yes?"

"I have a Talon Karrde out here.  He demands to speak with you.  He says it is crucial to Mara Jade's trial."

"Let him in."  She turned back to Corran.  "It'll be about five minutes before he gets into here past security.  So, you knew about this the whole time, and you didn't tell anyone?"

"Mirax knows, but I didn't tell her."

"Women's intuition," Iella smiled.  "Well, I was expecting some sort of alibi for her, but not this kind."

"Why didn't he tell me?" Leia asked quietly.  Corran felt guilty for dumping all this on her like that.  But he had no choice.

"I promised Luke that I would take care of Mara in case anything happened," he said, and stopped as soon as the door to Iella's office slid open.  The tall smuggler walked in.  He glanced at Corran and Leia, his gaze on Leia longer than the others, and then he looked back at Iella.  What was the Princess doing here?  She looked like she'd been knocked around a few times.  Corran.  It must be something he said.  What would he know that Mara wouldn't want him to tell?  Well, if the Princess was here, he might as well make the best of it.

"Mara needs to be moved to a more secure location, Director."

"The security has been increased since the accident last night."

"Accident?  The only accident is that the assassin got past your guards!" Talon took a deep breath.  "I apologize.  Everyone on my team has been working around the clock on this.  But my request remains the same: Mara must be moved somewhere else."

"I agree," Leia said.

Talon found himself frowning slightly.  What had Corran told them?  As the leader of an intelligence agency, he was bothered by the idea that someone knew something he didn't.  He knew it was a natural feeling, but also childish.  Occupational hazard.

"Where are you going to be moving her?" Talon asked.

"I want to talk to her," Leia said.

"I'm not quite sure that's a good idea."  _But who am I to say what I believe is best for my employee?_

"Iella?"  She turned to the other woman. 

"I'm not sure.  Mara's been acting kind of strange lately.  Last time you were in there…"

"Last time you were in there it took me several minutes to wake her back up," Talon interrupted.

"I'm not going to yell at her," Leia said quietly.  "I never meant to."

Corran was also reluctant to let her talk to the prisoner.

Iella stood up.  "I'm sorry, Madame President, but I cannot permit it."

"I can order it."

"And I am the Intelligence Director.  I say 'No.' Leia, really.  I don't think it's smart to let you in there."

"Director Wessiri Antilles, perhaps you have some information," Talon said quickly.  "One of my associates found several sources claiming that Mara was a part of a weapons smuggling ring.  I can prove that it was not she; she was nowhere near the places mentioned on those days.  _Hell, I might as well kill two hawkbats with one stone._

Iella shook her head.  "I haven't heard anything about that.  I'm fairly certain if something like that would have come up, especially with Mara's popularity lately, I would have heard about it."

_What kind of intelligence agency are you running, Iella?_ the smuggler asked her silently.  Talon glanced over at Corran, and was surprised to see the man slightly pale.

"Was this ring off of Corellia?  Smuggling weapons to the Empire?" the Rogue asked.

"Yes," Talon confirmed.  Corran closed his eyes.  "Why?"

"That's what Luke was doing."


	10. Chapter 10

**NOTHING STAYS THE SAME**

**CHAPTER TEN**

"What?" Leia cried.  "Smuggling weapons for the Empire?  Never!  My brother was a hero of the Rebellion, he –"

"I didn't mean _that,_ Princess," Corran interrupted her.  "Calm down."  He wished that the NRI hadn't spread the ysalimiri all around the complex.  Even though he had only recently discovered the Force, being cut off like this was eerie, to say the least.  "Luke had been looking into that group for the past four months.  He'd heard that Mara was involved, but he asked her and she said she wasn't.  Since this benefited the Empire, he decided to go and find out who was running the show.  He had a lot of information on it.  Whenever he could, he'd search for possible leads.  He has a copy of his findings somewhere."

"Do you know where?" Iella asked.  _So this was the new source of weaponry for the Empire,_ she mused.  Though she hadn't admitted it to the smuggler chief, she had indeed heard of this group, but she had too little information for even that knowledge to be of use.  That, however, had also been one of the NRI's main reasons for suspecting Mara Jade—had Luke Skywalker been sniffing too closely to her invisible organization?  But Luke hadn't even been off Yavin 4 much, so where would he have received this information?  The Advisory Council even said they'd had little contact with the only Jedi Master.

"No," Corran admitted.  "But…"

"But Mara would," Leia finished.  

"Look," Talon interjected.  "I can tell something big happened.  What was so important that Corran told you?"

Corran glanced at Leia, as if to ask her permission.  Leia closed her eyes again and nodded slightly.

The pilot gave a much shorter version of his earlier telling.  Iella found herself admiring her not-so-legal counterpart for his control.  Except for a nearly invisible lifting of his eyebrows, he showed no reaction at all.  _Too bad we don't pay enough for him to work for us,_ she thought.  _We could use someone like him._

Even without the Force, Mara knew something had happened when Talon walked in less than an hour after he'd left.  He had a different look on his face.  He was trying to hide some emotion.  Most of the rest of his expressions were much better hidden: his anger, fear at what would happen to her, the sadness, the sympathy, and the worry.  And then Corran Horn followed her employer.

"You told him," she said softly.  "You son of a bitch…you told him.  I said _not_ to tell anyone, Horn!"  Her voice rose in strength and anger.  She stood up, anger blazing in her eyes.

"Don't even start, Mara.  I had no choice," Corran said, tiredly.

"Yes, you did.  Didn't you tell him, Karrde?  I said 'No,' damn it, not 'Go ahead'!"

"He told me," the Rogue pilot answered.  Though he didn't raise his voice, there was steel behind it.  "But I made a promise, Mara, and I keep them."

"To who?" she demanded.

"To Luke."

"What for?"

"Luke knew that he was risking his life to break apart that Imperial ring.  He knew it.  But he didn't want anything hanging over both of you when you were married."

"So it _is_ my fault.  Is that what you're saying?"

"You are not even listening to him," Talon said.  "Luke went after a weapon smuggling group that was using you as a front person."

"I'll say this for the last time: I have never smuggled weapons to Imperials!"

"Luke went after them to stop that idea before it affected your reputation."

"He let himself be killed for my reputation?"  _What the hell was Horn talking about?_

"Mara," Corran said, walking towards her.  She took a step back.  "Luke found out about this group a few months ago.  I looked into it, and I put some of the info together and gave it to Luke.  He's been searching for the source of all this for months, and he finally found the planet and city this went back to.  He told me that much, but he didn't tell me where this was.  Now I know another reason why he did this: your imposter.  We need your help piecing the rest together."

"What can I do?" she whispered.

"Do you know where Luke kept this information?"

"There are several places.  Some on Yavin 4, one in his apartment here."

"Where exactly, Mara?"

Mara hesitated.  Where would Luke keep this information?  On Yavin.  He must have been using the miniature vault on Yavin 4.  "Yavin 4.  In our—in his quarters.  Look under the bed—there will be a flap of fabric that has been cut.  Up in that hole is a box with data disks."

"Encrypted?"

"Of course.  Not impossible to slice, but just one mistake wipes the disk."  A faint smile grew on her face.  "I was teaching him to do that.  The information in there is not secret;  he just put public information together for a conclusion."

"So what's the encryption?"

"Bring it to me with a data reader and I'll decode them."

Karrde nodded.  "I'll get the disks myself."

"Don't try to copy them, Talon, or they'll erase.  And don't put them near the engine, hyperdrive, nav computer, or atmospheric control.  Or any kind of powerful computer, like a slicing one Ghent would have."

"Or they'll erase?"

"How did you guess?"

"Just a hunch."

"I told him to be thorough."  Her smile faded.  "So now you know," she said.

Talon knew what she was referring to.  He didn't even need to ask.

"Yeah."

_So what do you think?_ she asked him silently.  After a few moments of awkward silence, she looked at his eyes.  She didn't see any judgment in them.  He wasn't going to treat her as an outsider, although she wouldn't ever be impartial to the New Republic.  But, then again, not even Karrde was impartial.  With friends, well, close acquaintances in the hierarchy of the Republic; he couldn't be, no matter how hard he tried.

"I'm glad you found someone, Mara," Talon said seriously.  "Though I must admit, it _has_ been kind of obvious to the rest of us.  You and Skywalker are perfect for each other."  _Hang on, Mara.  We'll get you out of here, and with Luke.  You deserve happiness, not the shitty life you've had._

It was after dark when Leia returned to the apartment.  Han was sitting in front of the Holovid, some newscaster trying to look important, babbling at the viewers.  He glanced up at her as she walked into the brightly lit sitting room.

"How was your day?"  It was usually Leia's greeting, but she just stood near the Holo projector for a few minutes.

"You won't believe it, Han.  I don't."

"What are you talking about?"

"Luke…"

"What about Luke?  Leia, what are you talking about?"  It was unusual for his wife to react like this.  Well, not all that unusual since Luke's funeral.  But before that she'd always been cool and in control.

"How well do you know Corran Horn?"

"The Rogue pilot?  I've met him a few times.  Definite good guy.  Didn't he help out with Isard?  He was at the Academy and helped take Exar Kun out."

"Was he close to Luke?"

"I'm not really sure.  Corran would be the one to ask."

"He told the Intelligence Director and me this morning that they'd been close.  That Luke confided in him."

"Could be.  The kid needed someone to unload on, and another Jedi would have been perfect."  Han had quit asking "Why."  When Leia was ready, she'd answer that question.

"Do you really think that Luke would get married behind my back?"

"I think he'd have been too afraid to, honestly.  I know I would."

Leia glared at him.  "Well _that's_ for obvious reasons.  But…Luke and Mara…"

"What?" Han's eyes widened.  "You're not really trying to say that Luke was _that_ crazy—I mean, I knew he was mentally unbalanced, after all, he _was_ a Jedi, but Mara Jade…You're right, sweetheart.  I don't believe it."  Hand's mind was running at lightspeed now.  _But that would explain several things…why they spend so much time together…why they always seem to be on planet at the same time…why Luke had been so relaxed, even after Callista…I thought he'd never snap out of that._  He remembered his thinking about Mara Jade from times past.  He'd always had mixed feelings about the beautiful trader.  At times it seemed he'd been in her place only a short time before a smuggler, skating on thin legal ice.  He knew what it was like to have one event completely change his life.  With Mara it had been the Emperor's death.   With him it had been agreeing to transport a crazy old man and farmboy off of Tatooine.  He knew how important a second chance was.

And then there were times he was certain he could never truly trust her.  It always seemed that she could easily turn on Luke, and fulfill her Master's last command.

She swore to kill Luke.  She saved his family.  She hated the Jedi.  She risked her life to destroy C'Boath.  Who was this woman?  Could they trust her?

"Han?  Are you paying any attention to me?"

Han snapped out of his musings.  "Sorry, sweetheart.  What were you saying?"

"I asked whether or not you believed we could trust Mara."

He knew how important a second chance was.  "I think it's worth a try."  If Luke trusted her…

The petite woman led Talon towards Luke's rooms on Yavin 4.  Even the Force blind trader could feel the difference in the Academy.  Everything was somber.  Tionne, the silver-haired musician, looked like she'd been crying.  Her husband, Kam Solusar, didn't look much better.  Both were tired.  Kam had been instructing a class of Jedi students when the _Wild Karrde_ landed.

"We haven't been in Master Skywalker's quarters.  We locked them and left them that way."  She punched in the code.  "Do you really think Master Skywalker left anything behind to pinpoint the murderer?"

"That's what I'm here to check.  Tell me, Tionne, has Mara Jade studied here recently?" he asked.

"Occasionally.  She'll spend about a day or so and then we wouldn't see her for weeks.  Such an abrupt woman.  She rarely talked to the others, just Master Skywalker."  The door slid soundlessly open.

As soon as Talon walked into the room, he looked around.  He'd never been in the Jedi Master's rooms, and he wasn't quite sure what to expect.  Very Spartan, with just a bed, a chest for clothes, and a small refresher.  Talon walked around before he went to the bed.  Walking into the 'fresher, he noticed something that he doubted was Luke's.  Since when did Luke wear a catsuit?

Talon grinned as an image of the blond farmboy in the tight leather suit.  He saw other items that he doubted Luke would wear or use.  Kazrisp fruit shampoo?  He knew that was the scent that Mara always had around her—spicy, and not sweet like so many women preferred.  And he doubted that Luke used stylish combs to hold his hair up and away from his face.  And a robe of purple asquzybe silk?  Purple didn't seem to be Luke's color.  The small bag of makeup didn't seem to be Luke's style, either.

Laughing at the pictures running through his mind of Luke with rouged lips and in the catsuit, Talon reached under the bed for the hole Mara mentioned.  The box was right where she said it would be, but she didn't mention the shock switch that had been turned on.  His right arm went numb, and he cursed as he wrapped a section of the blanket around his hand as he grabbed the box with his left hand.  He felt the tingling of energy, but it didn't numb the arm.  He didn't see any noticeable switch to turn off the stun setting.  Damn her.  He was certain it was just an _accident_ that she forgot to mention it to him.  Yeah, right.


	11. Chapter 11

**NOTHING STAYS THE SAME**

**CHAPTER ELEVEN**

_I can't believe he told Talon…I _told_ him not to tell _anyone!  _I wonder who else he'd tell.  It's my and Luke's business, about what we do, not Corran, not anyone else.  Just Luke and me._

Mara turned over in her bed and stared at the duracrete wall.  _Maybe Talon was the only one.  I mean, who else would he tell?  Everyone else would just say that I could still kill him.  That's their impression of me.  But I _couldn't_ kill him.  Not now, not ever._

Mara sighed and sat up in the narrow bed.  She needed to sleep, but she couldn't.  How would people act towards her once they knew?  That was something she'd asked Luke about, and he'd responded that if she didn't want anyone to know, then he would do what she wanted.  He'd even mentioned getting eloped on some backwater planet to lessen the chance of anyone finding out.  He said that he wouldn't tell Leia, even.

_What's going to happen?  I _know_ something's up.  Gods, why did they have to put ysalimiri around me?  If only I could reach out and sense him still…it's like a part of me is missing._  She shook her head vehemently.  _I am Mara Jade, and I will _not_ fall apart because of this!_

It was morning before Mara had even been asleep for more than an hour.  Talon passed through security rather quickly, as the guards already knew him and knew that he was smart enough not to carry weapons on his person into the Headquarters.  Now the whole frisking routine was just for appearances.

Mara stood up as Talon walked in.  He held six standard sized data disks, and he handed them to her with the small datapad.

"How long do you think this will take?" he asked.  He was supposed to meet with Corran immediately after Mara found the location.

"Not long.  It's my own code, so it'll be easy."  _Well, one of my codes.  Surely Talon realizes that I don't use the same code for longer than a few weeks for anything important._  She slipped the disk into the reader and typed in a string of commands.  Finally she added in the decoder, and the disk read in Basic.

BLASTECH RIFLE MODEL T-93

BLASTECH STUN BATON X-75

The list continued on and on, and at the end of the list, Luke had added in QUANTITIES UNKNOWN.

He had written up his own conclusions and research.  The smugglers and thieves routinely hit the planetary storage buildings, and seldom the actual factories.  The BlasTech Company, the leader of the hand weapons industry, had, on average, a higher security in their factories than the planetary governments spent on their storage facilities.

The intruders were never seen, except for the lucky sludgenews holocam operator who caught the image of the woman who so strongly resembled Mara Jade.

The first time the weapons were all placed together for transportation was on Corellia.  From there the materials were separated into different categories and shipped off Corellia.  From there it went to Toprawa, then to two other planets before reaching another smuggler-rich world.

Mara hadn't realized how much work Luke had done researching this information.  He even kept a schedule of projected export dates and times.  There was only one day on which Luke had labeled as removal to final destination.

"What is today?" she asked Talon, who'd been leaning casually against the wall since she began.  It was so difficult to keep track of time in a place like this.  She had practically nothing to do all day; they wouldn't let her work on her business.  She had old holodramas to watch, and then only rarely.  She had datadisks to write on, but there wasn't much she could do without the records from her business.

"Nine-Twenty.  Fourteenth New Republic year."

_I've been in prison since Eight-Thirty.  Damn_.  "A huge shipment leaves Caratos for Bastion in eleven days."

"Caratos?"

"Yeah.  Luke says that no shipments have left Caratos yet.  They've all gone there, and nothing's left yet.  I think that's a pretty good indicator.  He has the projected date as the thirty-first of this month."

"Where the hell does he find this information?" Talon asked.  His organization was the largest intelligence agency in the galaxy, and they hadn't heard even _half_ of this information, much less but it together so neatly."

"I used some of my contacts on Toprawa for that info, but Luke never told me what it was for.  I guess people owed him favors."

"So we go to Caratos."

"That's where you go.  I'm still in prison, in case you forgot."

"I haven't, Mara.  I have to leave.  I need to talk to someone.  I'll be back later."

Talon picked up his comlink from the desk outside the room and immediately called Corran.

Leia glanced at the holovid that showed the visitors at her door and sighed out loud.  It wasn't even 0800 yet.  She had a meeting at 0915 that morning, and she wasn't in the mood for any more surprises.  She still had trouble believing what the Jedi had told her only three days ago.

She walked over and tapped the doorpanel to open it.

"Gentlemen," she said, greeting them.

"Good morning, Leia.  Did we wake you?"

"No, I was already up.  What do you need?"

"We know where the weapons were going," Corran said.  "Luke left all the information behind."

"Where?"

"We don't know how many people are going to be there, or in this entire this at all.  Luke thought they'd transport everything off planet in just a few days.  It'll take about four or five days in hyperspace to reach Caratos.  Any strike team would have a few days after that to find these Imperials and take out the group, or at least delay until another team can make it out."

"And you want Mara to come along?" Leia asked, already knowing the answer.

"Her skills are needed.  She can do the job of two others, if not more.  _This_ is what she does.  Did," Corran corrected himself.

Leia was quiet for a minute.

Talon glanced at the chrono on his wrist.  Leia noted this nervous gesture.

"Why else would you want Mara to come along?"

"She'd be a valuable asset to any strike team," Talon said, as if the most obvious answer in the galaxy.

Corran glanced at him and decided to push Leia further.  "Talon found different little things about the body.  They're beginning to doubt it was really Luke, after all."

"Like what?" she asked, her eyes solely on Karrde.

"The eye.  That's always bothered me, and I had an expert look at it.  Why spend so much money to buy the _carythimol_, spend enough time beating, yet blast his face so obviously off-center?  Anyone who was smart enough to capture a Jedi Master would certainly make sure both eyes were vaped.  That suggests it was done on purpose.  So why make it seem Skywalker is dead?  So no one looks for the living one.  That Mara had been on Corellia with Luke just gave the NRI someone to suspect.  Other than her, they have no lead."

"What did you 'expert' find out?"

"The eye had scratches, like scars.  The scars are consistent with a retina surgery.  Someone employed a not-very-good surgeon to work on this guy, to change the retina pattern.  He wouldn't have been able to see through the eye at all, it was so sloppily put back together."

"And had that happened before, Luke would have healed himself."

"That's what I guessed.  There's reasonable doubt that Luke is not dead."

"I can't sense him.  How do you explain that away?"  She was perfectly aware that all of the evidence against the former Emperor's Hand was circumstantial.

"You didn't feel his death.  If you never felt him die, they could have him near ysalimiri.  Since my organization had to abandon Myrkr, we haven't been able to monitor all who export those lizards."

"What am I supposed to do?  Her trial begins today."

"Talk to Iella.  The least you can do is at least try," Corran answered her.

"And what if Iella refuses to release her?" Leia wanted to know.

Wisely the two men didn't answer.  Leia felt she already knew the answer, but surely these boys weren't going to try and break Mara out of prison?  She remembered when Luke and Han had done the same thing so many years ago.

"I'll talk to Iella."

Corran turned to leave with Talon, but Leia called the pilot back.  "You've told me that because Mara had been in love, she wouldn't kill him.  What if she actually had?  I mean, she got caught up in one of her nightmares and she accidentally killed him?"

"She wouldn't have been able to.  First of all, Luke told me that her nightmares had subsided after they…well, when they finally got together.  I think that Luke's strong Light Side presence finally completely banished the Emperor's corruption.  Second, I wouldn't be able to live without Mirax.  I can't think of a life without her."

"I feel the same way about Han," she said quietly.

"I think it would be more serious with your brother and Mara.  I've felt their Force signatures—you can sense Mara _through_ Luke, and vice versa."

"How permanent do you think that is?"

"I wonder whether death will separate them," he added.  His voice was very soft, so quiet Leia had to lean in to hear him.  He truly believed that, though he'd never said it, or, hell, even _thought_ it until now.


	12. Chapter 12

**NOTHING STAYS THE SAME**

**CHAPTER TWELVE**

Mara Jade was sleeping when the door to her cell slid open.

She was in a whirlwind of black.  The invisible wind tore at her hair, whipping it around her face.  Something was out there, with her, but she could not see it.  She only _knew_ it was out there.

Her eyes stung from the constant wind, and Mara reached out as far as she could.  A faint voice carried in the air.

"Mara…"

"Hello?" she asked, but she could not even hear her own voice.

"Mara…" The voice was stronger, and recognizable.  A voice from the grave.

"_Luke!_"

Mara opened her eyes only to be temporarily blinded by the bright lights in the ceiling.  She forced herself to lay quietly and take several deep breaths.  She knew someone else was in the room with her.  She sat up in the bed, placing her back to the wall.  There were still black spots dancing before her eyes.

"Who is it?" she asked, hoping her voice sounded as strong as she tried to make it.  What the hell had just happened?

Leia couldn't say anything.  As soon as she felt the Guard remove the ysalimiri, as she had ordered, Mara's body convulsed, and Leia could feel something else in the room, a very familiar presence.  Mara had cried out the same name Leia whispered.

Mara stood up in one liquid movement.  Leia noticed that even after everything, Mara never lost her catlike grace.

The Force.  She could feel the Force again.  That thought burst into her mind with a rush of the clean feeling Mara associated with the Light Side.  After being almost blind for so long, she could feel everything.  She turned to fully face the woman whose presence was nowhere near as strong as her brother's.

"Organa Solo.  What are you doing here?"

"What was that, Mara?" Leia asked, breathlessly.

"Do you honestly believe _I_ know?  Why are you here?"  Mara did not remember seeing the Princess during her first day on trial.  She grimaced at the fresh memory.  Borsk Fey'lya had been the judge.  If there was anyone he hated more than Skywalker, it was Mara.  He'd denied every request Rendel had brought before the court.  Testimonies had not even begun and the trail was already against her.

"Was that Luke?"

Jade though about her possible answers.  "Yes" would admit that she had a close tie to Skywalker, especially if Organa Solo guessed that she'd sensed her brother only because Mara's mental shields were not fully in place.  "No" was altogether safer—deny it all.

Mara's hesitation answered Leia's question.  It _had_ been him.  But Mara was unsure of how to answer her.

Leia clicked on her comlink.  "Winter?  Is Han already at the docking bay?"  She nodded to herself.  "Good.  Mara will be there in just a few minutes."

"What's going on?" Mara asked.

"We're getting you out of here.  You'll be able to stop the weapon smugglers and find Luke."  She picked up a box and placed it on Mara's bed.  "Here's your stuff.  Get dressed.  The prison garb is a little too identifiable."

Mara opened the box and on top of everything else was the ring Luke had given her.  Emotion flooded through her senses when she picked up the ring.  She closed her eyes and tried to hide it.  She felt Leia take the necklace from her fingers.

"Here, let me."  Mara felt the cool chain clasp around her neck.  She turned around.  Leia spoke before the red-haired woman could.

"I know already.  That's why I'm doing this.  Find him, Mara."


	13. Chapter 13

**NOTHING STAYS THE SAME**

**CHAPTER THIRTEEN**

Mara shed her dark cloak as soon as she entered the docking bay.  It would be there by morning, she knew.  Leia had given her the cloak to cover the red hair that the holocams would surely pick up on and shadow her face.  It also fit well enough to hide the lightsaber and the two blasters.  Leia had given her the blasters, but no power packs.  The Princess reminded Mara that full power packs would set off alarms through the Headquarters.  Along every hallway were new sensors for that exact purpose, all placed immediately after the assassination attempt.  She'd assured Mara that Han would have power packs for both blasters.

Mara didn't recognize any of the dozen ships on this level, though she knew the _Millennium Falcon_, Solo's pride, was located a few floors up.  She was willing to bet Republic credits that her beloved _Fire_ had been impounded.  If those incompetent Republic mechanics ruined her ship, she swore to hunt every last asshole down and shoot each one.  She'd invested too much money and time for a few mechanics to destroy in their inspired search for smuggled contraband they'd never find.

She pushed those thoughts from her mind as she approached the lone freighter apart from the other ships.  She recognized it as a YT-2400 Corellian freighter, a later model of Solo's _Falcon_.  She approached the ship and about ten paces away she heard a roar, and then the cussing of a well-known Corellian pilot.

"Get over here," he told her.  "Come on, we haven't got all day."

Mara walked up into the ship and Han Solo and Chewbacca followed her.  The Wookiee headed straight for the cockpit, only a step ahead of Mara and Han.

She could not express the relief she felt as the planet of Coruscant was left far behind them.

Leia spoke softly to her children the next morning.  She knew she'd receive a call from the Director of New Republic Intelligence, and she knew why.   She told the children not to let anyone know where their father was, or Chewie, or Aunt Mara.

"It is most important that no one know where they are, okay?"

"They're going to save Uncle Luke, aren't they?" little Anakin asked.  His blue eyes, so much like his uncle's, stared straight into Leia's brown ones.

"Yes."

"Good.  I _told_ you Aunt Mara wasn't bad."

Leia stood up as soon as her personal comlink went off.  She took it off her collar and held it in her palm.  Finally she turned it on.  "Organa Solo here."   And then, "Iella.  Hello.  I didn't expect you to call me this early.  What's wrong?"  The twins looked at each other, confused.  "Mara's missing?  How?  I thought you said your security was the best!  I don't see how it is if she could get out of it!  Yes, I will gladly come down to talk to you.  I'll be there in a few minutes."  She snapped it closed.

"All right, kids.  Be good for Winter."  She ruffled Jacen's hair as she grabbed a light jacket and walked out the door.

"Leia, what the _hell_ did you think you were doing?"

"Iella, at least wait until the door is closed," Leia said calmly.   As soon as the door slid shut, Leia looked the woman in the eyes.  "Luke is still alive.  Mara is the best chance to find him."

"What happened to the whole idea that Mara killed him?  Have you completely forgotten your confidence that we had Luke's murderer?  Do you remember _any_ of that?"

"Yeah, well, I was wrong.  I have no trouble saying it.  I was wrong.  And because of that, I nearly let Mara be executed.  But Luke _isn't_ dead!"

"How do you know?  Answer that."  The Director of Intelligence was pissed off, to say the least.  That the _President_ of the New Republic broke her prisoner out and walked out of the NRI Headquarters was infuriating.  And Jade was due in the courtroom in less than two hours!

"I felt his presence.  I _know_ he's alive.  Look, it's difficult to explain this to someone who isn't Force sensitive, but I can _feel_ him when he's near.  And when he's alive, and he is.  He didn't die.  That body belongs to someone else.  Some poor bastard was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and just happened to look somewhat like Luke.  I suggest your Intelligence agents figure out who that corpse belongs to, because it doesn't belong to my brother."

"Leia, Mara is supposed to be in the courtroom in an hour and a half.  She's gone.  What am I supposed to do?"

"Say she's sick.  That always works."

"Organa Solo, this isn't school.  This is real life, and my ass is hanging on the line here.  What do you expect me to do?"

Leia glanced at Iella's desk.  The Director kept her desk clear, with only a few data disks in short piles.  The data reader was dusted.  There were few objects she obviously had from her home: holos of Wedge and her daughters, as well as a small globe of Corellia.  A globe.  If it was painted dull silver and had a small pin on it, it could pass for a detonator…

"Bomb scare."

"What?"

Leia picked up the globe and tossed it to Iella.  "Bomb scare.  Before Mara's supposed to come out, have a bomb scare.  Evacuate everyone for the rest of the day.  Say someone attempted to murder Mara again.  Run an investigation.  I'll help out."

"You want me to pretend that there is a detonator in a room holding every Republic Senator and important figurehead?  Damn, Leia."  _Where did a _Princess,_ of all people, think these things up?_

"ETA is three days, twelve hours.  After that, it's only a time of finding where exactly the kid is on the planet."  Han slouched in a chair in one of the supply rooms.  Mara was asleep in the room they'd given to her.  She was in her own room; Corran and Talon shared one of the others, and Han and Chewie were in the last room.

"Mara can help with that.  I'm pretty sure if she's close enough, she can tell us exactly where Luke is," Corran added in.  The entire strike team consisted of Han, Chewie, Corran, Talon, and Mara.  Corran wondered whether that was enough people.  After all, they were attacking a smart smuggling group.  Maybe he should have gotten a Rogue buddy to come along, or Kam.  Another Jedi wouldn't have hurt.

"So what exactly are we doing?  Just landing on planet, and hoping we can find a smuggling organization that doesn't want to be found, rescue a Jedi who may or may not have access to the Force, and hopefully find a way off planet that will ensure all of us are still alive?"

"Yes, that's about it," Talon acknowledged.  "It isn't the best thought out plan, but with three and a half days in hyperspace, I'm sure we can refine it.  Besides, some of the wildest plans work the best."

"Yeah, I'm the king of crazy plans," Han said.  "But that doesn't necessarily mean this one will work."

"Oh, come on, Solo.  Don't be such a pessimist."

The three men and Wookiee turned to look at the woman leaning in the doorway.  Corran hadn't even noticed she was awake.  _Some Jedi,_ he thought to himself.  _You don't even know when another Force-sensitive is awake or not._

Anyone who didn't know Mara Jade wouldn't be able to tell the difference in her attitude before and after her incarceration.  She wore a black flightsuit tucked into knee-high matte black boots.  Her hair was plaited back and away from her face.  A lightsaber at her belt, as well as a holdout blaster and her forearm holster, she looked the same as always.  Beautiful and deadly.  But there was something else.  Her vivid green eyes could barely hide the emotions running through her psyche.  Corran could feel her mental barriers as tight as she could possibly make them.

"Are you just going to stare at me or are you going to continue with the plans?" she asked finally.

"We've already come up with the plans," Han said, somewhat defensively.  

"Oh, good.  So whose ship is this?  I thought only museums wanted these old fashioned YTs."

"It's one of mine," Talon said.  "She's a beauty, isn't she?  I got her for near nothing.  Just an extra ship, for things like this.  The _Asteroid Belt._  I call her that because it looks like a blind pilot took her through one."

"Reminds me of Solo's _Millennium_ _Falcon._  Beat up and an antique."

"Hey," Solo protested.  The Wookiee repeated his pilot's protest.

Mara walked into the room and sat on one of the supply containers away from everyone else.

"So let me see if I've got this right.  We're just going to waltz into their base, provided that we find it, of course, find Luke, blow the place up, and leave."

"Yeah, that's about it," Corran confirmed.

"You guys are insane."

"Yeah, well, insanity is what's gonna save your boyfriend."

Mara snapped her heard around to glare at Solo.  He held his hands up, palms forward.

"Hey, sorry.  We all know about it, Jade.  So calm the hell down, okay?  Damn, and I thought you were jumpy before."

"Did you tell anyone else, Corran?  Maybe Borsk Fey'lya, and bel Iblis?  Ackbar?  Who else did you tell?"

"Just Organa Solo, Talon, and Iella.  Leia must have told Han—"

"Iella?  You don't mean the Director of Intelligence.  Oh, gods, you didn't.  What the hell were you thinking?"

"I did what I had to do.  I wasn't about to let you stay in that prison while there was something I could do about it."

The Force storm that had nearly destroyed the Grand Hall was still dying down.  The red-haired woman walked through to the twin tall doors.  She pushed one open and immediately went down to her knee before the older woman.

"News?" the old woman asked.  A stray lock of auburn hair pulled free from the clasp at the nape of her neck.

"No sign, my lady.  The storm was his doing, though.  We've all felt that."

"Bring in more ysalimiri, then!  I want this entire city to be blind to his senses.  Do not let him escape.  I will kill you if he does!"

Throughout the older woman's tirade, the woman on her knee did not look up.  First she failed her mistress with the failed attempt to terminate Jade, and now _He_ escaped.  One more failure would mean her life.  She would not fail her mistress a third time.

Darkness.  The city was all darkness.  She could feel the evil in every doorway, in every creature.  Where was she?  She didn't know.  Was this city always this black?  The moon illuminated nothing.  Or perhaps the moon was only an illusion.  She remembered that from somewhere.  In order to keep the inhabitants of an underground colony from becoming claustrophobic, there were illusions of a horizon so when the citizens looked out the useless viewports, they saw mountains similar to those on Coruscant, where the artist had been from.  Although that worked for a little while, eventually the humans became suicidal and the project was deemed a failure.

Perhaps that's what she was.  A failure.  She was weaponless, blind, cold, and hurt.  Her delayed reactions showed her the drugs were still rampant in her system.  If she could only access the Force, then she knew that she would be able to purge her system.

Limping, she headed in the direction of a distant light.  Maybe she could stay here, because she did not want to stay in the dark.  But the dark was her friend.  In the dark, no one could see her.  In the dark—

Mara jerked away.

Corran was in her doorway, still half asleep.  "Mara?" he asked quietly.

"Go back to sleep, Corran.  You're imagining things."


	14. Chapter 14

**NOTHING STAYS THE SAME**

**CHAPTER FOURTEEN**

Three and a half days in hyperspace was being overly optimistic.  Much like Solo's ship, the _Asteroid Belt _had numerous problems, one of which was a faulty hyperdrive.  They could only travel a few parsecs at a time, and every few hours they had to come out of lightspeed, recalibrate the nav computer, and hop into hyperspace again.  Three days in hyperspace was enough to make anyone irritating, but Mara was bitchy by the second day of the constant hyperspace hopping.  She spent the first day mostly in her room.  The small freighter was no more roomier than the _Millennium Falcon_, and Mara wanted nothing else but to take out her frustration with her lightsaber.  Corran had volunteered to spar with her, but the simple fact was that although there was room for one person with a lightsaber, two was pushing it.  Besides, Mara could feel her anger crowding her judgment, and she couldn't guarantee that Corran would come out unscathed.  Oh, she wouldn't kill him, or permanently injure him, she'd just bruise him.  She knew that the team needed him, but did he have to be so damned irritating?

Talon noticed the friction between Mara and Corran early on, having learned quickly to recognize Mara's actions and attitude.  He knew that they couldn't spar with lightsabers, but why not just hand-to-hand combat?  He wasn't sure how good Corran was, and he'd seen Mara a few times.  It would be entertaining to watch, if Corran was half as good as he said he was.  So he and the tall Wookiee cleared one of the supply holds so that they could spar.

Mara was kind enough to remove her shoes before beginning.  She knew she could do enough damage without them.  Corran kicked his shoes away and faced his opponent.  Both were dressed in Corran's clothes—all Mara had with her was her flightsuit, and Corran was the closest to her size.

Mara struck first, with a low kick meant to sweep his legs out from under him.  He backed away a step and Mara pressed forward.  She unleashed in her attacks her frustration and anger, landing on the quick pilot several blows, two of which he could feel already beginning to swell and bruise.  Other than that, she was controlling herself very well.  She wasn't fighting to practice—she fought to maim.  Corran knew he was adept at hand-to-hand—he'd proven that to Luke during his brief stay at the Jedi Academy—but Mara was far more experienced than him.  She didn't seem to tire, or falter, or make a mistake.  He'd block a blow, only to realize she'd feinted it and he had another bruise.  He tried to use the Force against her, and although he could sense her presence, strong and carefully shielded, he could not predict one move she'd make.

Predicting her moves were impossible to him, so he decided to try and exercise his own mind powers.  He began to press at her shields in several different areas, testing her, trying to find a weakness to exploit.  He knew he couldn't say in the fight much longer, so finally he found a small scratch in her mind and he pushed against it with all his strength.  She fell back against the wall and finally looked up at him.

"Not bad, Horn," she said.  "Of course, if there were any ysalimiri around, you'd have been in deep shit."

"Damn, Mara, I was _already_ in deep shit.  Where the hell did you learn to fight like that?"  He gratefully grabbed the water container from Talon, and tossed the other one to Mara.

"Different places.  I learned quickly."  Mentally she was already critiquing her own performance.  She'd been too emotional, number one. That had been a problem she hadn't had in many years.  Number two, her one-two-one snap kick backhand combination was a little slow.  Damn.  She'd need to work on it.

"So how does it feel to lose to a girl?" Han asked, trying to stifle a laugh.

"Against her?  I have no problem with that.  I'm just glad I'm still standing.  I could die a happy man right now."

"Yeah, well, kid, I suggest you sit down before you collapse."

"I'm not _that_ bad," Corran protested.

"Don't complain, Horn.  It makes you sound like a kid," Mara said, offhandedly.  She passed him on the way to the refresher to take a quick shower.  She hooked her right leg behind his ankles and laughed as he dropped to the ground.  "_Now_ the fight is over."

_"As you can see just behind me, the Senate building has just been evacuated.  New Republic Intelligence received a warning this morning about the possibility of an attack during the trial against Mara Jade.  This warning proved true when security personnel found several thermal detonators planted around the entire building.  New Republic Intelligence are planning to conduct an investigation and are unsure of how long this will take.  Until then, Mara Jade's trial has been postponed.  This is Khrana Theleq, and I'll keep you updated on this story as it happens."_

Iella Wesirri Antilles wasn't surprised when her secretary announced that Rendel Alino demanded a meeting with her.  She wasn't surprised when her assistant, Tarin, told her that the lawyer was waiting outside her office.  What did surprise her was the man's attitude when he walked into the office.

"Cute stunt, Director Wesirri Antilles.  Very cute.  I wonder who came up with that idea."

"I do not know what you are talking about," she glanced at a datapad on her desk as if it had his name typed on it, "Mister Alino."

"Play ignorant, if you want.  Doesn't matter either way to me.  I just wanted to know whether my services are to be needed anymore."

"You mean being Ms. Jade's lawyer?"

"Yes.  Talon Karrde never told me that he was planning to leave the planet, and I certainly did not expect him to bring Mara Jade with him.  I rather suspected that he would leave with a group, find the real murderer, and free Mara _legally_ when he came back.  It seems I underestimated him."

"I wasn't aware that Master Trader Karrde had left planet."

"I'm certain," he said.  He clearly did not believe her.  The Mara Jade trial and everyone involved in it probably had red flags being set off if any one of them did something even slightly unusual.  That Karrde would spontaneously decide to take a hyperspace trip and not tell anyone the real destination…well, the NRI had to have been going crazy trying to locate the ship he took, since the _Wild Karrde_ was still on planet.

"It would seem that you have a better information network than I do.  Tell me, Mister Alino, where do you get your data?"

"That is not my secret to tell, Director."

"Director, President Organa Solo requests to meet with you."  Iella glanced down at the small comm built into her desk.

"Tell her to come in when it is convenient for her."

"Yes, ma'am."  There was a slight pause.  "She says it is convenient _now,_ ma'am."

"She's in the building?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Let her in."  Iella turned to Rendel.  "This meeting is over."

"I think I'll wait around.  I would like to speak to President Organa Solo as well."

"I don't think so, Alino—"  The door slid open to admit the petite princess.  "Madam President, good afternoon.  About this morning, all I can say is that I have my best investigation team already working on it, and I'll keep you informed onto the happenings in this."

"Thank you, Iella.  I just wanted to know whether you had any information as of yet.  I should have just called the office instead of coming down, I guess.  I wanted to stretch my legs some.  Okay, just keep me in touch with this."

"Of course, Madam President."  Leia glanced curiously at the man standing by Iella's desk.

"Ah, so it was _you_ who came up with the idea.  I should have known," the man said.

"I still don't know what you are talking about, Mister Alino.  Perhaps you have me mistaken with someone else?"  _Or you're too smart for your own good?_

"What is he talking about?" Leia asked the Intelligence Director.

"I don't know."

"You ladies are both excellent actresses.  I wonder whether Wynssa Starflare could have beaten you in this.  But I am not stupid.  I was not allowed to meet with my client for the simple reason that I _couldn't_ have, because she is no longer there.  Just before my client would have made her entrance, some very concerned security personnel immediately evacuated everyone, yet no one was allowed into the hall where Mara would have made her entrance even though that was one of the safest areas in the entire building.  One reason for this could be that you did not want any of the Senators to feel that any of their peers were favored above themselves, or it could be you didn't want anyone to maybe notice that the guards surrounding Mara Jade had no one to surround because she wasn't there.  The ysalimiri, a nice addition, provided that even any Force-sensitives in the area wouldn't be able to tell whether or not she was there."  He had watched both women with a sort of casual air during his entire explanation.  Now he gave then a slight, almost sad smile.  "I know, you're not going to tell me.  Too bad, so sad.  I just wanted to let you know that while you both are extremely intelligent—I barely even pieced together your little deception—not to play your sabacc cards that way too often.  Someone's likely to catch on.  Anyhow, I intend to help you with this, and so I will keep in touch.  I also expect that if something were to come up, I would be among the first to know, so I can help you with this.  Thank you, ladies," he said, pressing the button on the doorpanel and leaving the room.  The door closed behind him.

"What an arrogant monkey-lizard," Leia muttered.  " 'I barely even pieced together your little deception.'"

"What a pain in the ass," Iella agreed.  "I just hope he's not going to try any shit.  I'll have Tarin look over that.  She needs something to do."

Mara's nightmare had begun the same way it had before.  The darkness surrounded her.  But this time it had been different.  She'd remembered vaguely how she got to be there, but where _there_ was, she wasn't sure.  She'd been in her hotel room, packing up to leave, and then her senses went black.  She grabbed her lightsaber and managed to catch two of the blue stun bolts on her saber, changing the green-white blade blue for an instant.  She remembered bringing her saber up to catch a third when a fourth and fifth slammed into her body from the back.

She remembered several of the interrogations, not the questions, really, but the pain.  Her body had been beaten and drugged.  A few times she realized her captors had been careless and she'd been able to touch the Force, but never for very long.  Then the nightmare ended suddenly, as if she'd been watching a holodrama when the power was cut.  She'd woken up bathed in her own sweat, her heart beating irregularly.

Now she sat in the cockpit of the _Asteroid Belt_, piecing together what she knew.

It hadn't been _her_ memories; they were Luke's.  He'd been caught just after she left.  They must have had him under surveillance—he'd begun packing when she left.  He was put under ysalimiri just after she jumped to hyperspace—perfectly executed.  Luke didn't have a chance.

What did these people want him for?  Did they want ysalimiri, or just torture him?

"Mara, are you all right?"

"Did I wake you up?" she asked.  "Sorry.  I know you need plenty of sleep after your beating."

"I sensed your dream."

"How much did you see?"

"Not much.  Darkness.  But I could feel your emotions.  _His_ emotions.  That _was_ Luke, wasn't it?"

"Great deductive reasoning, CorSec.  What tipped you off?"

"The green lightsaber."

Mara finally turned to look at him.  She could barely see his face because of the light coming from behind him.  She hoped that he wouldn't be able to see her face because of the shadows.  She didn't want anyone to see her right now.  "I thought you said you couldn't see anything."

"I felt you realize it wasn't you because your lightsaber was the wrong color.  You also noticed the grip was different, and the balance.  You know your saber backwards and forwards."  He leaned against the sides of the door to the cockpit.

"Yeah, well, so do you," she said defensively.

"Yeah, I do.  I just think it is kind of amusing that you've gotten attached to your lightsaber."  _Smart move, Corran, _he chided himself.  _Some things you _don't_ want the assassin to know._

"What's funny about it?  It's a good weapon, CorSec.  Reliable.  Power cells last longer than a blaster's power pack.  Can block blaster bolts.  I haven't come across a better weapon for close combat situations."

Corran thought it sounded like she was reading a manual for the lightsaber.  "I know."  _Sure, Mara.  There are only four things you are attached to: the _Jade's Fire_, your lightsaber, your job, and Luke Skywalker._  Slowly her friends were being added to that list.


	15. Chapter 15

**NOTHING STAYS THE SAME**

**CHAPTER FIFTEEN**

"Okay, final jump before we reach Caratos," Han announced.  He finished punching in the coordinates and pulled back the lever.  The bucket of bolts, also known as the _Asteroid Belt,_ let out a loud grumbling like the belly of a beast before accelerating to lightspeed.  Chewie let out a loud growl.

"Hey, it'll hold together, okay?  Yeah, it's not as nice as the _Falcon,_ but we've got to work with what we've got, right?"

Chewie rumbled a response.

"Yeah, I know.  Well, you try to tell Karrde that.  He insisted we take this hunk of junk because the _Falcon_ is too noticeable.  Do you know how many YT-1300s are out there?"

"A lot of them, but only about thirteen in working condition," said a voice dryly from the doorway.

"Don't you just love it when people eavesdrop on other people's conversations?" Han asked his companion.  The Wookiee yowled his agreement.

"How much longer is this supposed to take?" Talon asked.

"A few hours.  Catch some sleep, we should be on planet in about three and a half hours."

"I'll be sure to tell Mara that."

"Uh, lay off of Mara for a little bit.  I'd like to surprise her.'

"In other words, you doubt we'll be there in three and a half hours, and you don't want her to kick your ass."

"Yep."

"Not a bad looking place," Corran muttered, looking at the planet that filled the viewport on the _Asteroid Belt._  

"Yeah, not bad except for the pirates, the vicious smugglers, all those idiots hoping to make the big-time on the black market, the fact that everyone _has_ to wear a blaster to hopefully dissuade anyone who wanted to rob you—"

"Okay, I get the point, Han.  I thought you liked that kind of place.  Anyways," Corran kept talking so Han couldn't answer, "It doesn't look that bad from up here."

"I haven't been here in a couple of years.  They haven't changed landing procedures, have they, Karrde?"

"Not that I know of.  Maybe you should turn on the comm unit in case they give instructions."

"Of course.  That's just what I was going to do."  He flipped the switch to turn on the comm system on the ship.  A loud burst of static ripped through the small speakers.

"Shit!" the former smuggler shouted and slammed his hand down on the console, finally hitting the switch to shut off the comm.

"They're jamming the frequencies.  What the hell?"

"They can't be doing this for us.  No one knows we're here!"

"Yeah, well, calm down, boys."  Mara closed her eyes.  "We're not the only ones here."

"What the hell do you mean, Jade?  You're beginning to creep us out, here."

"There's a battle going on.  _Damn_…" She reached down and changed the sensors to check out the other side of the planet.  Much like Talon's other ships, the _Asteroid Belt_ had new sensors, ones that only government ships were supposed to be outfitted with.  Han hadn't even known that they were there, and that was evident with his muttered curse.

Although still rough, an image showed a large ship, an Imperial Star Destroyer, on the other side of the planet.

"Is she one of ours?" Han asked.

"If you name your ship the _Retaliator,_ then yeah."

"An ImpStar, out here?  Why?"

"You think I know?" Mara asked.  "It must just be a coincidence.  I mean, come on, the odds of them knowing where we were going _when_, and arriving here at just the right time—"

"Never tell me the odds," Solo said.  Mara rolled her eyes.

"Well, what do you want to do about this?" she asked, instead of the sharp retort she wanted to say.

"We act like we didn't see it."

"We act like we don't know that there is an ImpStar in system, and that this ship carries three figures the Empire would love to get their hands on?"

"Yeah, well, we aren't the only ones.  The Empire isn't too happy with you and Karrde, either."

"True," Talon said, before his second-in-command could answer.

"Like I said, we act like we didn't see it."

"Sounds good.  Let's get down to the planet."

He recognized the white triangular shape far above his head.  He'd seen it many times, often much closer, in an X-wing.  He remembered that much.  He and…his droid.  He had a droid, didn't he?  A little white one, that followed him everywhere.  White and blue.  

He needed to get back into that base.  The drugs finally out of his system; he knew he was dealing with a concussion, though how bad he wasn't sure.  He was afraid to sleep, in case _they_ found him, or he didn't wake up.  Every time he moved his left leg, agony ripped through his spine.  It was hard to walk, even harder to think straight.  He had a headache that made his worst hangover look like nothing.  Normally he could use the Force to suppress the pain, at least for a while, but he knew that ysalimiri surrounded the city.  If this was even a city.  He'd been here for so many days, he couldn't remember exactly how many.  All he knew was that he needed medical attention, and for that he needed the Force.

And Mara.  Dear gods, where was Mara?  Did they catch her?  Is she…?  No, they couldn't have killed her.  She must have gotten away, or surely he would have known she was near.  Or if she'd died.  He would know, right?  Of course.

He leaned against a moss-covered wall.  He was inside one of the abandoned houses.  There was some foodstuffs in the cabinets, enough for a few more days if he didn't mind eating slightly stale food.  When it came to that or starving himself, he was willing to eat the less than healthy food.  Maybe another house would at least have a weapon that he could defend himself with.  His lightsaber was still with _them_, and he doubted it was even in one piece anymore.  The first thing they would have done is destroy his only weapon.

He knew he was surrounded by ysalimiri because the Force was just an empty hole to him.  He tried to console himself—he'd sensed the Force in the old woman, and he knew that she was as blind to the Force now as he was.  They'd have to rely on the more conventional methods to find him.  He'd need to move somewhere else, soon.

His mind reverted back to his worries of Mara.  Now that he thought about it, he _had_ seen his fiancée.  During one of his sessions with the old woman, he saw a lithe woman with red hair pulled back.  She looked almost like Mara, or at least how she used to look, when he first met her.  He had thought seeing her had been a pain- and drug-induced hallucination.  Now that he thought about it, wouldn't he have dreamed of his beautiful Mara as she was now?  Her hair was longer than the woman he'd seen, and had more gold in it from the suns of the worlds she'd visited for the past several years.  This woman's movements had been like that of a well-oiled droid.  Almost like she'd just learned to walk—mechanical.

The imposter.

Damn, that girl was good.  Who was she?  He'd actually mistaken her for his Mara.

Before he left the house, he made sure the red crystal was still in his pocket.

The five people aboard the _Asteroid Belt_ decided to wait for nightfall on the planet before landing.  They'd burn off speed over the ocean, and land outside Caratos' main city.  They'd check around the city for any news on this imposter.  Maybe they'd receive some information through that.  The imposter was the best lead they had.

They had just entered the atmosphere when Solo heard a familiar sound—the high-pitched whine of a TIE fighter.

"Oh, shit!  Hold on, everyone!"  Han tried to comm unit, and the static filled the cockpit again.  Red laser blasts burned past the cockpit.  Chewie had already raised the shields to maximum, and the next blasts rattled the ship.  

"I sure hope this thing stays together, Karrde," Corran told the smuggler chief quietly.

"Same here."

"Doesn't this junk heap have any weapons?" Han cried out.  "We've got four of the damned things on us!"

Mara was already searching for the gun turrets.  She'd never been on the _Asteroid Belt _before, but she'd spent several days on board.  Talon had mentioned that although the ship was outdated, the weapons were new.  She found an old fashioned ladder and climbed up into what she recognized as the gun turret she'd been searching for.  Quad lasers, not too bad…  She flipped on the switch to activate the comm system directly to the cockpit.  The jamming didn't affect inner-ship functions.

"Solo, I'm in the upper gun turrets.  Give me something to shoot out."

"Got it Jade.  I've already numbered the bastards.  I'll go ahead and bring the targets to you."  

Mara strapped herself into the chair, but not quickly enough to be slammed into the back of the chair as Han dove the ship.  _Inertial compensators…where the hell are they…_She brought her hand down onto the console until she felt comfortable, as the pressure on her decreased.  The inertial compensators were to make sure the pilot wasn't crushed during any crazy stunts they tried.  Especially useful in small snubfighters, many weapons personnel also preferred to use it.  Mara snapped off a few shots at a passing TIE, getting a feel for the controls.  _Ah, a KingStar 185D6.  I've used this before._  Mara heard sounds below her and knew the X-wing pilot was climbing into the lower turrets.

"Leave something for me, Mara," he said into the headseat, letting everyone know he was in place.

"I was beginning to wonder whether all the Rogue heroics was just a lie," she said, aiming and following a TIE as it screamed by the turret.  She fired just as the blue box on the targeting system turned red, and glanced down as the TIE fighter burst into flames that quickly died in the void of space.  The viewscreen dimmed, and then went back to normal.  She heard Corran announce that he hit one, but it was still flying.  Wasn't doing any fun maneuvers, though, anymore.  He must have hit something vital.  Mara caught it on it's second, stupid approach.  She hit a third, sending it veering into space, critically damaged.  She knew they wouldn't find the pilot—she'd seen the red blasts shoot through the cockpit.  _They'd have to get the pilot out with a sponge,_ she thought grimly to herself.  Corran caught the fourth one, turning it into a fireball as the _Asteroid Belt_ shot through the fire.

"Oh _shit!_" they heard Han yell.  "We've hit the atmosphere—hold on!"


	16. Chapter 16

**NOTHING STAYS THE SAME**

**CHAPTER SIXTEEN**

The old woman, as she was resigned to refer to herself—after all, she certainly wasn't growing any younger, and her white streaked hair seemed to indicate old age—stood in front of the transparisteel viewport.  She could see the entire city, the kingdom from which the Empire would be resurrected.  With little coaxing on her and her daughters' parts, the former citizens quickly left their pitiful homes.  Why anyone would voluntarily live on the gods-forsaken planet was beyond her comprehension.  With smugglers, thieves, and various other alien scum, the place was a hellhole she tolerated only for its ability to hide her small business.  She never considered what she did to be weapons smuggling or thievery.  According to her beliefs, _everything_ belonged to the Galactic Empire.  No meager Rebellion would ever change that.

It was night and she wondered why she was still awake.  Any sentient creature on planet (and only the humans were sentient, in her mind) would have been asleep already.  Too much was on her mind.  He was loose.  Someone allowed him to escape, and although the ysalimiri would severely hinder his ability to completely escape her playground, and chance in his favor was simply not allowed. 

Besides.  _She _was coming.  How _she_ escaped from the New Republic's prison was unknown.  The rest of the Republic believed she was still imprisoned.  Of course, such an obvious lie on the behalf of the leaders of the Republic would certainly cause trouble within the lower ranks.  That was something to keep in mind.

"Arienne," she said, to the younger woman she knew to be standing by her door, her bodyguard.  "Tell the _Retaliator_ to ensure no one else attempts to land on planet.  Anyone who tries to is to be shot down immediately."

No sense in leaving skilled enemies at your back.

Han was panicking.  In his own ship, he'd have been able to slow the descent to the surface, but he didn't know the _Asteroid Belt _as he did his _Falcon_.  He tried to level the ship out, to glide, since the ImpStar's ion cannon disabled much of the YT 2400 freighter.  "Damn it, Chewie, find the repulsorlifts!  Someone moved them around."  Although the 2400 model was alike the 1300 in many ways, the cockpit had the devices moved around a bit, supposedly to make it easier on the pilot, if he or she decided to fly solo.  But with the surface of Caratos looming in the viewport, nothing seemed worse than changing the controls around.

Corran knew they were in trouble—the blue lightning of the ion cannon had completely disabled the lower gun turret, and he was trying to climb out of it, but the clasp on his safety harness wouldn't let go.  He reached out with the Force to try and slow the ship down, knowing that his nonexistent telekinetic powers would do no good now.  Then he realized there _was_ something he could do.  He recognized the energy out there, as the _Asteroid_ _Belt_ was streaking through the thin atmosphere.

"Mara!" he called.  "Help me!"

She could already feel what he was doing, and she added her own Force strength to it.  The ship slowed a little more, and she could hear the curses of the Corellian pilot in the cockpit.  He had no idea why the ship suddenly began to slow.  She was using telekinesis, but he absorbed power.  But she knew Corran could only absorb so much power.  What could he do with the power before he couldn't take any more?  She could feel that he'd already thought of that, and a shield was being created around the ship.  He was trying to focus on making the shield around the three in the cockpit, as well as her and himself, but he couldn't refine it that well.  His shield encompassed the majority of the ship.  The surface seemed to come even closer faster, though he knew the ship was actually slowing down.  He was no longer holding onto the power; he was only converting it to the shield, and helping Mara with telekinesis.

The impact knocked him out.

He looked up at the sky as the asteroid streaked through the sky.  Then he realized it _wasn't_ an asteroid—it was a ship!  He didn't see the crash, but he saw the flames flicker, and the dim pillars of smoke barely visible against the rain and grey sky.

Maybe the ship wasn't damaged too badly.  Maybe someone onboard was still alive.  Maybe they could help him.

He grabbed the cloak he'd found and limped towards the crash site.

A part of his mind tried to warn him off.  If _she_ saw the crash, wouldn't she send people out to investigate?  But she was busy trying to do something else, though he wasn't sure what.  Maybe she was trying to…bring back the Empire?  Shit.

Another piece fell onto the puzzle.  He remembered what he'd been doing.  He'd been searching for the imposter who was smuggling weapons to the _Empire._  How could he have missed it?

Glancing at the sky, he knew it would only be an hour or so before the darkness.  Night was darker here than anywhere else he'd seen.  Day was grey, much like dusk on Coruscant.  He tried to jog to the wreck.

The first thing Talon felt was something dripping on his face.  He touched it, feeling the warm liquid.  He forced his eyes open.  What happened?

He tried to sit up, but his back felt like it was on fire, and he couldn't move his legs.

What did he remember?  The ship.  The TIE fighters.  Ion blast.  They must have crashed.  He glanced around, everything red-tinted from the blood that had run into his eyes.  Chewbacca was still in the copilot's seat, the back of the chair broken backwards.  The Wookiee appeared to be mainly unhurt.  His blue eyes were open, though dazed.  Then Talon looked above him.  He just began to realize how badly the ship was damaged.  It was tilted upwards—Chewie was slightly above him, and he saw that Solo should have been near him—he was against the door from the cockpit, his safety restraints having been broken—and Solo was pinned to the ceiling by a large rock.  He remembered that the pilot had undone his safety restraints so he could reach all the controls.

_Oh, gods, we must have hit boulders.  How the hell do we get him down?_  The smuggler chief wasn't sure where Solo was bleeding from—the blood dripped from the rock.

Corran heard something that sounded like rain, and he slowly opened his eyes.  The cloudy sky above him opened with a bolt of lightning and he shook his head to clear it of the cobwebs.  Where the hell was he?  A simulator, maybe.  He recognized the mess of electronics in front of him to be a weapons console.  But what had happened?  It felt like he'd been knocked out.  And the rain would destroy the simulator.  Didn't they know that?

"Oh, shit," he said, with strong feeling.  _Now_ he remembered.  But hadn't there been a gun turret above him?****


	17. Chapter 17

**NOTHING STAYS THE SAME**

**CHAPTER SEVENTEEN**

The same second he realized he could touch the Force, her presence overwhelmed his senses.  She was hurt, and unconscious.  Usually, unconsciousness prevented being able to sense each other, but he and Mara were exceptions.

Using the Force came with an exhilarating rush of power.  He pushed aside the pain in his leg with ease and ran to the top of the hill.  He felt his stomach plummet when he saw the wreck.

The ship, a circular disk that reminded him oddly of the _Falcon_, had crashed into what had been an ancient rock monument.  The ship looked like the chew toy of a pet nerf.  It would never fly again.  The cockpit was lifted from the rest of the crater.  There were two people in the cockpit that he could sense, as well as an additional presence that flickered in and out.  He felt someone familiar in the body of the ship, which had been separated from the cockpit by a huge chunk of stone.  And she wasn't in the ship.

Carefully picking his way down the slippery slope, he tried reaching out for her.  He felt one of the men in the ship wake up, using the Force as a balance.  He instantly knew that Corran Horn was the Jedi in the ship—his distinctive presence gave him away.  But he was awake and mainly unhurt, so he turned his attention to finding Mara.

The upper weapon turret had been severed from the rest of the ship.  He pulled off the rocks that had fallen onto it from the crash with both his own arms and the Force.  He felt someone behind him, felt the shock rolling off him.  And then Corran began helping him.  The chunk of the ship was quickly uncovered, and with it, Mara Jade.

He picked her body up carefully.  Her head lolled back, and he had to fight the panic that ran through his body.  She would be fine.  If she were so seriously hurt, he'd _know_.  It was that simple.

He turned to the brown-haired Jedi.  "Who else was with you?" he asked.

The huge Wookiee disentangled himself from the broken copilot's seat, and started whining and grunting to his closest friend.  Han didn't respond.

"Chewbacca, I need your help here," Talon said.  His legs were becoming numb, and he knew that if he couldn't get the pilot's seat and nav computer off him, he could lose use of his legs, if not actually losing both legs.  He felt a chill, and disregarded it as Caratos' climate.  The Wookiee turned sad eyes to him and let out a roar.

"Chewie," the smuggler said, using Solo's nickname for him.  "I can help you get him down, but I can't move.  I need you to get this stuff off my legs.  It's too heavy for me to move myself."  The pain he'd felt in his legs and lower back was beginning to recede, which caused his fear to grow.  "Chewie, now!"

The cinnamon-furred Wookiee walked over to him.  Bracing his legs, he used all his muscles to lift the heavy and bulky chair and navcomp.  Using mainly his arms, Karrde scurried out from underneath it.  Chewbacca let the objects fall back onto the ground.

"Shit," the smuggler chief muttered.  With the weight off his legs, the pricks of needles blossomed into a burning pain in his lower back that ran down to his right leg.  He knew that the femur had been broken, with damage done to his lower spine.  How badly he was hurt, he wasn't sure.  He wasn't a medic, after all.  He hoped that he'd only strained his back, and nothing worse.

He tried to climb to his feet, the pain reaching an all-time high.  He bit his tongue to keep from screaming.  He'd been hurt before, this was nothing _that_ new, but their ship was gone, on a world being watched by an Imperial Star Destroyer.  Solo was hurt badly, he could barely walk, and Horn and Mara…oh, gods, he had no idea.

Chewie grabbed him under the arms and set him on his feet.  Talon's right leg immediately buckled and he kept himself standing by grabbing onto the crooked doorway to the rest of the ship.  The corridor only went a few feet before a huge slab of rock blocked them from the rest of the ship.

The Wookiee unsheathed his climbing claws.  Though Karrde knew Wookiees all had those long, extremely sharp claws to grab and climb the trees of Kashyyyk, watching this gentle giant interact with the Solo children made him forget the strength of the Wookiee.  Chewbacca was fearsome when he needed to be.

The claws dug into the metal and the Wookiee climbed up to where Solo was pinned to the wall.  The Wookiee tried to push the rock off his friend, but it barely moved.

Corran's mind was running at the speed of light.  Luke _was_ alive!  Who was in the Star Destroyer?  Why did the TIEs shoot them down?  How did Luke get here?  Did he escape?  From where?  Where exactly _was_ here?  Was Mara all right?  Where were Talon, and Solo, and Chewbacca?  Where they all right?  Why was Luke looking so strangely at him?

"I can read your thoughts like a datapad, Corran.  Calm down.  So Talon, Han, and Chewie came?"

"They're in the cockpit."

"You stay with Mara.  I'll check on them."  Luke took off his cloak and covered Mara with it.  He was drenched almost immediately, and it wasn't until then that Corran realized he was just as wet.  The rain just hadn't seemed worth noticing until now.  Quickly and quietly in the growing darkness the Jedi Master headed up to the cockpit.

He let his mind wonder what made the difference in his thoughts.  Before he was lost, but now he knew what to do.  He knew what he had to do.  It was not only him, but Mara, his brother-in-law, and friends.  They simply _had_ to get off planet.  That was all there was to it.

He climbed on top of the ship and looked down into the gaping hole that was letting in rain.  The first thing he saw was the blood on the ground.

"Corran?  Mara?  Come down.  We need your help!" Talon's voice was followed quickly by a familiar Wookiee's insistent addition.  "Now!"

Luke dropped into the cockpit.  With the Force, he made sure his injured left leg didn't twist on landing.

"Luke?" Karrde asked in amazement.  The smuggler quickly recovered.  "Luke, Han's been hurt.  We can't get him down."

Luke glanced up when a hot drop of blood fell on his head.

"Han…"

"Can you move the rock, Skywalker?  If you can do that, Chewie can get him down."  Chewbacca roared in agreement.

Luke reached inside himself for the energy that was always there.  He saw the rock in his mind, and with a simple gesture, the rock lifted slowly and then faster.  The huge Wookiee immediately grabbed his friend and hugged the unconscious man close as he climbed back to the ground.  He laid the man on the floor.  Han's skin was a pasty white, no doubt from the loss of blood.  His once-white shirt was blood soaked, and Luke couldn't tell just what part was bleeding.  The only way he knew his brother-in-law was still alive was he was still breathing.

Talon tried to tell himself the reason he was surprised to see Luke was that he'd expected to have to go rescue the Jedi.  But he knew the truth.  He didn't really expect to see the Jedi alive again.  Despite his arguments, he'd never been truly positive about it.

_What kind of a rescue is this? h_e asked himself.  _We've just crash-landed on planet, and the rescue-e just rescued the rescuers._

He pressed firmly on Han's wounds.  Talon wasn't sure what had caused the numerous cuts across the pilot's chest.  The worst of the wounds was a cut that sliced across the Corellian's stomach and curved upwards towards the right side of the torso.  Talon knew how lucky they were that Solo was not dead yet.  Had he been cut much further, he would have died sooner, even if he'd been immediately dunked in bacta, the galaxy's wonder-healer.

Luke had left Chewie with Talon and Han.  It would be extremely tricky to get Talon out, with the broken leg, and damned near impossible to get Han out without further aggravating his already life-threatening injuries.

According to the Jedi, Corran seemed unhurt, and Mara was unconscious, but other than that, unhurt.  Of course, they'd know more when she woke up.

The old woman had the look of someone far away.  She was staring out over the abandoned city, a vacant tone to her green eyes.  Her bodyguard watched her carefully.  Surely no one could harm her Mistress through the Force like this?  She'd been trained enough to know something dramatic like that was happening.  After what seemed forever, the woman blinked and looked at her bodyguard.

"She's coming, and she knows I'm here."

"What did you do?"

"I can feel another Force user with her.  He's strong, but not as strong as Skywalker."

As soon as her mistress mentioned the Jedi Master's name, Carima looked down.  They hadn't caught the Jedi yet.

"Where is she?  I'll send a group of our best—"

"She'll come to us.  Do not worry about it.  She will come to me."

Mara was still out cold.  Corran couldn't tell when she would wake up.  His chrono was crushed in the crash, and he realized how close it had come to crushing his wrist and hand with it.  Corran had moved the red-haired Trader to underneath a large chunk of jutting stone that when looked at from a distance was the chin of the ancient god of fate and death.  The ground was all mud, but at least they weren't directly in the rain.

He saw Luke pull himself back through the top of the cockpit.  Corran hadn't remembered seeing a hatch there, and he guessed that there now was.  It was still a surprise to see Skywalker alive, but with that came a feeling of elation.  All those who believed the Jedi would die so easily were wrong.  Skywalker was still alive.  Once again the Jedi Master survived an impossible situation.

"Corran?" he called.

"Over here, Luke.  I brought Mara out of the rain."

"Great.  Here, give me your lightsaber."

Corran obeyed, unclipping his saber from the utility belt around his waist.  "Okay."  The Corellian wondered briefly where Luke's saber had gone, but if he'd escaped from the smugglers like they believed, then of course the weapon would have been taken from him.

He heard Mara groan and glanced down at her.  She blinked a few times before trying to sit up.  Her head was spinning, but she didn't let that stop her.

"What the hell happened?" she demanded.

"Han crashed the ship," Corran said, matter-of-factly.  Actually, it hadn't entirely been Han's fault—Corran wondered whether he'd have been able to do a better job.  If he had been in his X-wing, you could bet on it.  But a freighter…no.  Probably not.  

"I meant _after_ that.  Who the hell is Tawnie Calanast?"

Corran searched his memory.  "Doesn't ring a bell.  Where did you get that name?"

"Right before the ship crashed, she grabbed my mind.  _Damn it_, that hurt.  It was like someone was trying to rip my brain out, or drive a transparisteel stake through it, you know?"

"Yeah.  I've had that happen before.  Not literally, but it sure as hell felt like it."

"Luke.  Where is he?"  She had sensed him shielding himself.  "He's here."

"He's getting Han and the others out.  They're trapped in the cockpit."

"I can help."  She tried to stand, but she could barely stay up.  Corran grabbed onto her arm, and helped her back onto the ground.  "Corran—" she began to protest.

"I'll go.  Just stay here until you're sure you can stand up straight."

Corran stood up and jogged over to the ship.  He recalled seeing flames when they first hit, but he could tell from the scorch marks on the hull that the rain had quickly put it out.  Pure Corellian luck.  If the fire hadn't stopped, they would have had more trouble with the occupants in the cockpit.

He saw the familiar silver blade of his lightsaber as he neared the cockpit.  Luke plunged the saber into the hull and began to carve a large hole in the ship.

"Mara's awake!" he told his friend.  "She's fine."

The lightsaber momentarily faltered, and Luke muttered, "Thank the gods," under his breath.  Corran doubted that Luke meant for anyone to see his reaction. 

"Luke, who are those people?"

Luke didn't even look at him.  "Later, Corran.  I'll tell you later."  The Jedi finished the cut and shut down the lightsaber, handing it back to its owner.  He closed his eyes, summoning the Force around him, and yanked the plug he'd made from the rest of the ship.  Immediately the Wookiee exited, carrying and unconscious and very pale Solo in his arms.  Talon was holding onto one of the crooked consoles.  Corran walked in, and Karrde put one arm around the uninjured man's shoulder, taking some of the weight off his leg.  Luke leaned against the hull of the destroyed ship.  Using the Force to move the hull piece meant splitting his concentration, and he'd let the pain suppression he'd been using for his leg weaken.  After a few minutes of using the Force and being able to walk normally and without much pain, the shock of it suddenly coming back was staggering.  He used the Force to cushion his leg again and began to walk over to where Mara was.  Chewbacca growled, and Luke quickly translated the cinnamon-colored Wookiee's concerns.

"Chewie says we need to get away from the crash.  I know a place near here we can stay," he added.  He turned to Chewbacca.  "Do you have any problem with carrying him for a while longer?"

[As long as needed], the Wookiee answered.  Luke knew how seriously Chewbacca took his life debt.

"Luke," Mara said.  "You take Chewie and Han there.  I'm going to help Corran and Talon.  We'll catch up with you."

"All right.  But don't stay here long.  _She'll_ send troops out soon."

Luke pushed open the door to the old house and cautiously walked in.  He hadn't been here before, but he'd searched for a house where he could feel the Force.  He didn't want to be in the darkness again yet.

Chewbacca set Han down on one of the beds.  The entire house smelled like mildew, but at least they were out of the rain.   Luke walked to Han and quickly checked his pulse.  "We shouldn't have moved him," he muttered.  "But we had no choice, I know, Chewie."  Chewbacca began searching the cabinets for a medkit of any kind.  He found one with basic med supplies and brought that to the Jedi.

Luke closed his eyes and probed his brother-in-law with the Force.  Although Han was as Force-blind as Talon Karrde, both men had a bright signature in the Force.  "Maybe I can put him in a healing trance," he muttered.

Chewie asked him a question, the worry barely hidden by the query.

"Even if he isn't Jedi, I could probably do it.  The only thing is, I'd have to stay the whole time.  I'd need to keep him in the trance, and channel the Force for him.  I could do it."  He studied Han carefully, and then sat next to him.  He let his eyes close as he felt the Force come at his bidding and surround him and the pilot.

"Keep an eye out for them, Chewie," he said, before dropping completely into the never-ending river that was the Force.


	18. Chapter 18

**NOTHING STAYS THE SAME**

**CHAPTER EIGHTEEN**

Mara had spent several minutes searching for her lightsaber, which had been flung from the gun turret she'd been in during the crash.  After unsuccessfully looking for the weapon, she finally closed her eyes and pictured her saber in her hand, and used the Force to pull it to her from wherever it had been.  It nearly tore a hole in the chunk of hull that it had been buried under.

"I thought you kept telling Luke not to use the Force for frivolous things," Corran reminded her.  He had used his silver blade on the hull so that he could begin taking supplies from the ship.  Mara had given herself ten minutes to get away from the ship.  She still didn't hear a whine from any kind of transport, but she kept herself open to the Force so she would know as soon as someone, anyone entered the vicinity.

"This wasn't frivolous.  I needed my saber, and we don't have all day.  What do you have, so far?"

"Enough rationbars to make even you happy."  The Corellian Jedi shook his head.  "I don't know how you eat those things."

"You get used to it quickly."  She walked past Talon, who was half-seated on a large rock.  "Weapons?"

"I don't have room for them."

"Fine."  She picked up the holsters and put them around her shoulders and across her chest; acting like it was something she did every day.  She fitted the blasters into their holders and grabbed one of the backpacks that Corran had found.  She stuffed blaster power packs into it, and finished off grabbing a medpack.  Checking her chrono, which had somehow survived the crash, she realized that they'd been out at the crash site for five minutes longer than she'd wanted.

"We've got to get out of here," she said, walking over to Talon.  Her employer had a sickly grey complexion, and Mara knew it was no doubt because of shock.  She and Corran had to get him somewhere quickly where they could better bandage his leg.  Their quick sprint was better than she expected, but Talon was still undoubtedly in extreme pain.  Breaking two bones in the same leg was definitely excruciating, as Mara knew.  Several of her missions as the Emperor's Hand had gone wrong, and she'd spent more time in the bacta tank than anyone she knew.  Well, except for Luke.  That farmboy sure knew how to get himself into troublesome situations.

She and Corran both helped Talon to his feet and they half-carried him away from the ship as quickly as they could.

Cara waited for the old woman to acknowledge her presence.  It would be nothing new if her mistress made her wait two hours before coming out of her trance-like state.  It had happened before.  She stayed on one knee, head bowed.

Carefully shielding her mind, she fumed at the old woman.  Why should one woman, not even a fully trained Force user, presume to have complete control over Cara and the others?  There were two other women, all who were bodyguards for the same damned old woman.  Who was this human, who assumed so much power?

Cara glanced up with only her eyes, not moving her head one centimeter.  The old woman was watching her.  Cara recognized the gleam of barely concealed anger in the old woman's eyes.

"You've shielded your mind against _me?_  Do you honestly believe I can not read your mind easily enough?"

"I apologize, my lady," Cara told the woman.  "I only shielded my mind so that my thought would not distract you from your meditation."

"Of course.  I trust you have news?"

"The _Retaliator_ sent a squad to check on the wreckage.  It appears at least three were on board.  One carried a lightsaber, or so the cuts indicate.

"They _all_ survived?"  Disgust was evident in the old woman's voice.

"It appears so.  No bodies were discovered, and the scanning crew should be onplanet in a few minutes.  The captain has explicit instructions to notify you immediately with the details."

"Good, Cara.  You did this yourself?"

"Yes, my lady."  _You stupid old hag._

The old woman laughed.  She had obviously missed Cara's mental addition.  "You truly are the smartest of my daughters.  Your sisters are failures."

"Thank you, my lady."  Cara forced a light smile on her face.  She hoped the old woman didn't take offense at her.  She was offended by so much these days.

"Make certain, dear Cara, that Mara Jade will come here."  The woman turned away.  "Smartest or not, I will kill you with my own hands if you fail me."

Luke felt like he was floating in midair.  He could feel Han's heartbeat, still not strong enough for his liking, but methodic.  Luke had been able to locate the main source of the bleeding, and repaired it.  Now Luke was weakening while his brother-in-law was strengthening.  The Jedi debated whether or not to come out of the trance before he was too weak to.

He blinked his eyes a few times in the dark room before he realized the reason everything was fuzzy and shadowy was because the room was barely lit.

"Chewie?" he asked hoarsely.  His throat and mouth was dry.  Han looked the same as he had when Luke placed him in the trance, except that all the blood on the shirt, vest, and bed sheets was dark and old.

The door slid open with a shriek of badly oiled gears.  Luke reminded himself to either oil the door or have Chewbacca take it off completely.  That was, of course, after Luke felt he could walk again.

He saw the silhouette of three people in the doorway, and it wasn't until the door screeched closed that Luke realized Chewbacca had brought Talon in.  Chewbacca gently put the smuggler chief on the other bed in the small room.  Luke lurched to his feet and limped over to the other injured man. 

"How is he?" Skywalker asked quietly.  He didn't think he could speak above a whisper right now.

"Broken bone.  Upper leg.  At least that's what it looks like.  Mara and I put a splint on it, but it needs to be looked at by a real doctor.  Or a meddroid.  There doesn't happen to be one here, is there?"

"No."  The Jedi didn't elaborate on what else the aging home was lacking.  "He's going into shock.  Corran, grab some blankets, anything.  We need to bring up his temperature before it drops too much.  When did he lose consciousness?"

Corran glanced at Mara.  "About five minutes before we arrived?"

"Yeah," she agreed.  "Give or take a minute."  She walked up to Skywalker.  "Luke, go take a break.  You're tired, and you need to sleep.  Corran and I can take care of this."

"Mara—"

"Don't argue with me, farmboy, _especially_ when you know I'm right.  Now, get out of here.  Corran, I don't see any blankets yet!"

Mara wasn't sure what time it was when she finally let herself go up to the second floor of the house.  Luke had disappeared up here an hour or so before.  It had taken that long to bring Talon back around, and to fit a new, better fitting splint on his leg.  Even with that, he and Han would not be able to do much.  Mara already figured that she and Luke would have to go find out who his captors were.  This operation had to be shut down, but not without some questions answered first.  _Of course,_ Mara thought to herself, the assassin part of her mind coming to play, _I wouldn't mind having to skip the interrogation and going straight to the fun_.

She walked lightly up the stairs to the attic, but the top step creaked anyway.  Luke glanced back at her and held his hand out towards her.  She took it and sat down next to him, and he put his arm comfortably around her shoulders and kissed her.  Both were careful not to let their Force senses mingle too much.  Every time they did that, any Force-sensitive in the vicinity would suddenly become aware that something was happening.  That was one way that Corran knew what had gone on between them, and they didn't want to give the former CorSec officer anything else to comment on.  They'd have time to do more sometime else.  It was a few minutes before she pulled away.

His eyes raked over her body.  Her wet flightsuit clung to her curves more than usual.

"You've lost weight," he said, concerned.  "Too much.  Haven't you been eating?"

"Yes," she answered, but with none of her normal defensive tone.  If he knew how little she'd eaten in prison, she'd be in for a lecture for him.  He'd always worried more about her health than she did.  "Why is it I'm always stuck coming out to the middle of nowhere to save your ass?  Would it be _all that difficult_ for you to nearly kill yourself on some nice planet, with actual hotels and everything?"

"What would be the fun in that, MJ?" he asked her.  Mara couldn't remember when he had begun calling her MJ.  He was the only one who called her that.

"I'm better than you at roughing it, farmboy, but I still wouldn't mind a nice place to make plans to attack bad guys in."  She pulled away and looked at him carefully.  "How are you?"

"Okay.  Normal stuff.  Captured, got the shit beaten out of me…nothing permanent.  I doubt I'll even have scars."

"Scars?  What did they use?" she asked suspiciously.  Scars happened with beatings, but she had a feeling that they used weapons, instead.  "Beaten" sounded much nicer than the alternatives.

"An old fashioned nerf-hide whip."

"They whipped you?  What for?  What did they want to know?"  Mara tried hard to keep emotion from her voice.  When Luke said that they had beaten him, she'd expected punches, kicks…they still hurt, but anyone with a whip could seriously hurt a captive, intentionally or not, especially if they were inexperienced with such weapons.  She herself had rarely ever used a whip, and then it was a Force-whip, and a pain in the ass to control, even for the Emperor's Hand.  For assassinations and such, a blaster worked just fine.  And the occasional detonator.

"You know what's funny?" he asked her.  "I don't remember what they wanted.  I barely remember the whip."  He pulled her close.  "I just don't remember.  I'm not even sure whether they asked me anything or not."

"Why would they kidnap you and not want any information?  Were they Imperials?"

"Women.  I didn't see any guys.  Just two women."

"Descriptions?"

"One old, one young.  I don't remember much about the old one…the imposter.  The younger one was the imposter.  She does look like you."

"How close?"

Luke was quiet for a few minutes.  "She really looked like you.  Her hair was all red, though.  None of your highlights.  But she was…mechanical.  She didn't have the attitude you show in your walk."

Mara thought about this, and then finally said, "Here, let me have a look at those cuts."

"They're fine, Mara.  None of them are deep."

"Shallow, for pain.  The deeper you go, the better chance you have of seriously wounding the person, and without proper medical attention, bleed to death."

"You talk like you know about these things," he said.

"I do."

"I know."  He stretched his arms a little, and hoped that Mara didn't see the grimace that crossed his face before he could control it.  She could be so overprotective sometimes.  "Do you have any idea how much I missed you?"

She looked up at him.  "Do you have any idea how I felt when they told me you were killed?"  She thought about letting him know about everything, but she'd tell him later.  It wasn't necessary for him to know of her incarceration for this mission.

"I am so sorry, Mara."

"What for, Skywalker?  You never intended to get yourself kidnapped and beaten.  At least, I should hope not."

"I didn't.  I've had enough of these nice little interrogation sessions.  I don't like them, and I don't want them."

"Good.  You had me worried there for a minute."

"Oh, come on, MJ.  You know me better than that."

"True.  Now, are we going to talk all night…morning, whatever, or are we going to get some sleep?"

Luke tried to stifle a yawn.  "It _has_ been a while since I've slept."

"How long?"

"Way too long."  After a few minutes, she knew that he had fallen asleep, his arms still tightly around her.  He didn't want to chance her leaving while he was still asleep.  She turned in his arms so that she was facing him, and brushed a lock of blond hair from his face.  _He still needs a haircut, _she thought to herself.  _Oh, what the hell.  He looks better with this farmboy cut than he would military style._  She wished that she had asked him more questions about where he'd been, and what he'd done since.  But she had missed him, enough to where she put the mission behind her just to make sure that he was all right.

_Sleep now_, she thought to him._  Because once all this is over, we are going for a very long, enjoyable vacation_.


	19. Chapter 19

**NOTHING STAYS THE SAME**

**CHAPTER NINETEEN**

PLANET: CARATOS

SYSTEM: O'PAHZ SYSTEM

SPECIES: HUMANS

LANGUAGE: BASIC

POLITICAL AFFILIATION: NONE

Leia Organa Solo read the information that her protocol droid, See-Threepio found on Caratos.  A planet full of smugglers and space pirates, reigned by anarchy.  A good place for weapons smugglers to hide out, because no one would notice them.  It would be as difficult as finding the proverbial needle in the haystack.  Briefly, she let her mind wonder who had come up with that phrase.  Maybe it had originated on Agamar?  A backwater farm planet like that wouldn't surprise her.

Luke was there.  If she concentrated hard, every now and then she could feel a flicker of her brother's presence.  Not enough that she could focus in on it, and communicate with him, just enough that she knew he was alive.  Now she wasn't feeling as guilty for helping Mara escape.  No matter how much Leia tried to deny it, all she did was help a prisoner escape.  And she dragged Iella with her.  But if Luke was safe, then Mara was under suspicion for a crime she in fact _did not commit_, so she was a wrongly accused prisoner, so really all Leia had done was set an innocent person free to help find her brother.  Right?

She realized how much she hated moral dilemmas.

Luke woke up to a sight he always loved to see.  The dull sunlight of Caratos was filtering through a hole in the damaged roof and illuminating his beautiful Mara.  The ring on the silver chain around her neck burst into vivid color as the sunlight hit it.  Now _that_ was one of his favorite things to see, as well: his love wearing the ring he'd given her.  The only thing he had left from his farmboy days.  He only wished that he could wake up with her more often.  With as much as Mara was on assignment, and he at the Jedi Academy, there were few times that they could escape the reality of the galaxy and retreat somewhere where they were not recognized, or where they could hide.  Corellia had been one of their favorites, but obviously that planet was now useless to them, if someone had enough of a warning of their arrival to coordinate an attack on him, complete with ysalimiri.  Well, there were still at least four other hideouts, including one vacation planet that they didn't ask any questions, and kept the holo and sludge reporters away.  What could two lovers, trying to hide from the rest of the galaxy (including his sister) ask for?

His left leg was tingling.  He moved it a little, tightening the muscles in the leg, and although he couldn't feel any pain, he knew that it would be sore from the healing trance he had put himself in.  It had been too long since he'd been able to sleep with _his_ Mara near him.

How long _had_ it been?  He had no idea how long he had been on this gods-forsaken planet.

Mara stirred, but then hugged him closer, resting her head on his chest, and going back to sleep.  Luke played with some of her hair.  _Yeah, that imposter's hair isn't as stunning as yours…_

He heard someone clear their throat, and Luke immediately grabbed one of the blasters from around Mara and it was already tracking for the person when Corran spoke.

"Hey, calm down, Luke. It's only me."  The Corellian Jedi held up his hands.  "Damn, and I thought Mara had killer reflexes.  Is she still asleep?"  Then he noticed the second blaster.  "I guess not."

"What do you want, CorSec?" Mara asked, tiredly.  For once, she didn't feel like moving away.  This wasn't the first time Corran had seen her and Luke like this, and she just didn't care what anyone thought now.

"Just wanted to know what we're doing today."

"Luke and I are going to go figure out what the hell's going on," Mara said before Luke could answer.

"Actually, Mara—"  He stopped short when he heard her voice in his head.

_Are you so dense that you think I'll let CorSec go with you—and leave me behind?  I'm not going to be kept out of this, Luke._  Her otherwise sharp retort was softened by her use of his first name.

_Mara, I don't want you out there.  She—she's crazy.  What did you call her—Tawnie?  MJ, she's completely crazy._

_And you think CorSec is better at eliminating threats like that than _I _am?  _She shook her head.  _After what she did to you, I am _definitely_ going to take her out myself.  And don't you dare argue with me.  It won't do you any good._

Corran watched them both carefully.  "Finished yet?  Good.  And what about me?"            

"You stay here with Talon and Han."

"Oh, come on.  Chewie'll stay with them.  I can do you all a lot of good if I come along."

"If that Destroyer up there decides to send a team down to find survivors, then Chewie will need help getting both Karrde and Solo out.  You can help him," Mara said.  She stretched a little, but didn't bother moving away from Luke.  Besides, he was warm, and she could feel the cold around them.  After the storm the previous night, the temperature had dropped, and her clothes were clammy against her skin.  She remembered that neither she nor Luke had changed from their soaked clothes.  Certainly not good for their health.  She found it funny that she was worrying about the flu when she learned just the night before that her lover had been whipped.

"Oh, come on.  They haven't sent anyone else yet, so why would they wait until now?"

"They could."

"Come on, guys.  Do I need to pull rank on you?"  That was one of the most common phrases among friends in the military.

"Wouldn't do you much good," Mara commented.  "I'm not in the military, and Luke was a Commander before he left the military.  Now he's a Jedi Master, but he still outranks you, a mere Knight.  Maybe you should drop that argument, huh, CorSec?"

"Shut up, Jade, okay?  Look, you wanted me to come along, and you can't get rid of me _that_ easily."

"You really should stay here, Corran," Luke said.  "Right now, Han and Talon are the ones who need the most protection.  I healed my leg last night, and Mara and I are ready to go."  His remarks were reasonable, as anyone would expect from the sole living Jedi Master in the galaxy.  This tone no longer bothered Mara as much, as she knew that it was only an act.  He only was the Jedi Master because everyone else expected him to be.  He really was a good actor.  Not as good as her, of course, but not that bad, either.

Konor Yrevied, Commander of Imperial Forces of Caratos, stood in front of the viewport, legs slightly apart.  It was the vision that his troops would want to see; the powerful, intelligent—handsome—Imperial commander, surveying the capital of the Empire.  Temporary capital.  As soon as the weak Empire—the one that only encompassed a few hundred systems—realized that Tawnie Calanast was the real deal, Yrevied was certain that she would be given Bastion.  Even though she was only a woman, she was smarter than that so-called Admiral Daala, and a rather adept Imperial.  According to rumors, he'd heard that she'd been the lone pupil of Emperor Palpatine, though he hadn't seen any evidence to support that.

He had not always been this strong figure.  The old woman had found him in a planet side cantina on largely lower class planet, where the Imperial hold was loose and barely seen in strength.  After the Galactic Empire lost Imperial Center, they progressively lost more and more worlds, and now, _now_ they were so weak that it would seem that they had no chance to turn the tide of the war.  How could a damned Rebel Alliance topple an Empire?

But he needn't worry about that anymore.  This Tawnie Calanast, she would destroy the Rebellion once and for all, because no matter what name they chose for themselves—The New Republic, he scoffed—they would never be any more than an poor coalition of smugglers and idealists, and above all, _traitors._

Mara strapped the forearm blaster around her arm, and checked the power pack on her small weapon.  She hadn't used it this trip yet, but it was a habit of hers.  One rule that had been drilled into her mind since her days as the Emperor's Hand was _always check your weapons_.

She then fastened a holdout blaster onto her belt and buckled it around her upper thigh.  She saw Luke doing the same thing.  He tossed her another power pack and she placed it on her belt.  Ever since she'd first used a utility belt during one of her assassinations, she always made sure she had one.  They were extremely useful.  Luke put two more power packs into the bag.  There was no such thing as too much firepower.

There were still two blasters and several more power packs on the floor, as well as Corran's lightsaber and a bag of detonators.  She and Luke were back upstairs, getting ready to head out.  Luke said he'd be able to find his way back to Tawnie's place, but although he tried to mask it, Mara could plainly see how much he disliked the idea.  But he knew that it had _to be done,_ and so he would lead her back to his prison.

_It's not so much me_, he said, picking up on her thoughts.  _I still don't want you to come, Mara_, he told her truthfully_.  The whole reason I went after them without telling you was so you wouldn't come with me._

She studied his face carefully.  _You're afraid for me.  Why?_

_I'm always worried for you, MJ.  You know that._

_No, this is something more._  She felt her stomach tighten._  You've seen something,_ she said with certainty.  _One of your Jedi visions._

He didn't bother denying it.  "I don't want you hurt," he said quietly, like the farmboy he'd been and would always be to his Mara.

"Luke," she whispered, closing the distance between them with two steps, and gently caressing his face.  He looked up at her, and she stared straight into his sky-blue eyes.  "You've never been able to keep one of your visions from happening before.  I _have_ to come along.  I don't know exactly why, but I have to."  She could feel fear rising, and then realized it wasn't her own fear, but his.

He kissed her softly, gently, pulling away only when he heard the stairs beginning to creak.  He turned and saw Corran's light brown hair before the Corellian Jedi finished climbing the stairs.

"Come on, Mara.  Let's get going, then."


	20. Chapter 20

**NOTHING STAYS THE SAME**

**CHAPTER TWENTY**

Cara flipped through a pile of datacards on her transparisteel desk.  The other two women, Carima and Arienne, had been researching Mara Jade since the old woman mentioned the Trader's name to her.  Of course, neither woman was intelligent enough to check their orders through their old woman.  Cara slid the disk into the datareader, and typed in the short passcode.

NAME: JADE, MARA

BIRTHYEAR: 1 PRE-EMPIRE

HOMEPLANET: WAYLAND

She knew that the two other women had gotten into Imperial records.  Not even Mara Jade knew her real birth year, or home.  She'd been raised on Imperial Center (or so she thought), by the Emperor's aides and other chosen ones.  Cara laughed.  Mara Jade really had _no idea who_ the hell she was!  That woman was in for a shocking day.  Unless…

Mara felt a presence flit across her mind when she and Luke took a short break behind what had once been a store.  Reflexively, she threw her mental barriers out as strong as she could.  She hadn't recognized the presence, so it hadn't been Corran.  It must have been Tawnie.

"Keep your mind shielded, Luke.  That Tawnie person just tried to reach me."

"I've had mine shielded."

"So did I, but…I don't know.  I was probably just not paying enough attention."

"Huh."  She knew what he was thinking.  She always had her shields up, tight and strong.  The only times she had to consciously alter them was to take them down.  And she hadn't quite completely accomplished that yet.

Luke absentmindedly fingered the lightsaber at his belt.  He recognized it immediately as the hilt to a speeder bike.  Oh, well.  Corran was probably just using whatever he could find.  The lightsaber wasn't his, but it was nicely built.  He found himself mildly surprised by that.

"How much longer until we reach Tawnie?" Mara asked him, glancing sideways at the Jedi Master.

"I'm not really sure," Luke answered after a moment's pause.  "It seemed like it took forever to reach you all, but I wasn't moving very far during the day, because I wasn't sure where to go."

"So then how do you know we're going in the right direction?"

"Because whenever I reach out with the Force, I still feel a blank spot to the west.  That's where I was."  He stared at a crumbling wall.  "They've been moving the ysalimiri around.  I was stuck in the Force void for so long, and I only came out of it when I reached your ship.  I'm pretty sure that Tawnie will be under ysalimiri."

"Then how did she contact me during the crash?  She grabbed my mind and dragged it so far below it took me a long time to find my way back."  She didn't add on the last part, _the only other person who could do that was the Emperor._

"Someone else, then?"

"I don't know."  She brought her knees close and rested her chin on them.  Something was right.  The ysalimiri bubbles were moving?  "Guards.  The ysalimiri are on guards."

"That could explain it."  His face paled slightly.  "Shit.  If that's true, then those guards were right by me the whole time."

"Well, wait.  Ysalimiri in groups expand the bubbles.  If a squad of guards—"

"Stormtroopers.  They were stormtroopers."

"Okay.  If a squad of stormtroopers equipped with nutrient cages were walking around, they could have been a few dozen meters from you at all times.  You stayed in the same area, mostly?"

"Yeah.  I had no idea where to go."

"Then you must have been near a camping place they chose, or even a barracks," she said, matter-of-factly.  "You are so damn_ lucky_ they never found you."

"You think I haven't realized that yet, Mara?" he asked, sharply.  He immediately apologized.  "I'm sorry, MJ, it's just…well, _damn._  I didn't realize how close I'd come to getting caught."

"I know how you feel.  I've had too many of those close calls, as well."

Corran was tempted to throw the still wet clothes across the room.  Anger was of the Dark Side, yeah, yeah.  He really didn't care.  How could they leave him behind?

He could have helped.  That was why he'd come.  To get rid of this weapons ring.  The Empire was so close to extinction, and during one of the final battles, he was stuck babysitting.  Talon had awake, and watched Corran fidget so that he wouldn't pace.  Finally Corran walked over to where the clothing was draped over a broken chair.  They had just been dumped here, and he knew that they'd never dry that way.  Sighing inwardly, he smoothed Mara's flightsuit over the chair, and grabbed Luke's clothing to place somewhere else.  He felt that, unlike Mara's clothes, Luke's was warm.  Confused, the former CorSec officer began to rummage through the pockets.  He found nothing until the last pocket.  His hand closed around the source of the warmth, and he pulled it out.

He stared at the crimson glowing crystal in his palm.  _What did Luke find?_  Then he felt the blood rush from his face.  _Impossible.  That was destroyed years ago.  Even my grandfather said that._

Nejaa Halcyon had mentioned this crystal in the notes he left behind for his son and grandson.  But it was history, because it had been destroyed by the Jedi Masters of old, who believed it to be dangerous.  

"Corran?" Talon asked.  He'd seen his friend pale, and wondered what had caused this reaction.  Corran showed him the crystal.  Talon fingered it, but he couldn't feel the Force running through it like the Corellian Jedi could.  "What is it?"

                "Oh, dear gods," Corran whispered.  "If Luke had gotten this on Caratos, then Tawnie might have the rest of it!"

Luke felt something at the edge of his perception, like someone was trying to reach him through the Force.  But Mara was right next to him, and she would speak out loud to him if needed.  It was probably that Tawnie woman.  Luke shook his head in disgust.  Whoever that witch was, she wouldn't be alive for much longer.  

Mara saw the large building about a third of a kilometer away.  They hadn't run across any guards at all, but they _had_ found several nutrient cages, most with the ysalimiri still inside, charred as though they'd been shot at close range with a high-set stun bolt.  She was unsure as to why the mass killings of these lizard-like creatures, but these thoughts were gone as she studied the target.  She and Luke would have to go in there _tonight_.  Mara had checked the date, and the shipment was to go out tomorrow morning.  They couldn't wait any longer.

"How did you get out?" she asked.

"I don't remember much."  He looked up at the building, but besides recognition, he couldn't remember.  He didn't even know where he'd been kept in that place.

Mara glanced away.  Usually she'd had at least a _little_ more information going into an assignment.  But she'd been on blind missions before, and she'd done just fine on them.  Right?  So a couple of them ended in bacta tanks.  She couldn't be perfect _all_ the time.

"Do we just go through the front?" Luke asked.  "It's not like they don't know we're coming."

"Oh, right.  Let's go through the front.  I'm sure they'll keep all the guards in the back, right?" she answered.  Luke could hear the sarcasm in her voice.

"Hey, Han taught me that sometimes the most suicidal plan works the best."

"Or it _could_ end in suicide," she pointed out.

"Well, the longer we stay out here and argue, the better plan _they_ can come up with."

"So you want to just waltz through the front door?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, gods, I am stuck with an amateur," she muttered.  "You don't know _anything_ about this place?"

"I was here for a little while, drugged and whipped, and beaten.  Other than that, I don't know shit."

Approximately half a standard hour later, Mara could not believe it.  She and Luke were actually walking through the broken glass doors into the lobby.  And no one had attacked them yet.  Knowing that their shields hadn't completely masked their presences, they both stretched out with the Force to find Tawnie.  The building was nearly empty; the only place they found that was occupied was a Force void on the top floor.  Mara found a computer terminal and brought up the blue prints for the building.  It had originally been an apartment complex, fairly profitable, considering everything that had been added to it and the gilded cracking columns in the lobby.  There was a turbolift to the left of the lobby desk, but Mara didn't want to get caught there.  There was an old fashioned staircase just pat the turbolift, but she knew from experience that a staircase was ideal to place an ambush.  And surely Tawnie wasn't stupid enough to let two Jedi to come near her without a fight.  So, groaning inwardly, she led him to the turbolift.

Once the doors shut, and the small room began to speed for the top floor, Mara pulled out her lightsaber and sliced a hole in the ceiling.  At Luke's curious look, she answered defensively, "Hey, they already know we're here, so why bother trying to conceal it?"  He seemed to be strangling a laugh, and barely succeeded.

"Here, farmboy, give me a hand up."  He used the Force to push the freshly cut section of durasteel from the turbolift and lifted her easily on top.  She braced herself, the wind in the shaft tearing her hair from its braid, and helped pull him on top as well.

"So your plan is to ambush the ambushers?" he asked, double-checking the setting on his blaster.  For once he didn't feel the urge to keep it on stun.  "Set blasters to barbeque."

Mara rolled her eyes.  "So you aren't going to pull all that Jedi Master crap on me?  No 'We preserve life, because all life is the Force?'" she asked, mimicking him.  They both stayed close to the turbolift, on their stomachs.  The air whistled by them.  Shouldn't they be at the top by now?

"Uh, Mara?  _Move!_"  He gave her a push hard enough to nearly knock her off the top of the turbolift car.

"Luke, _what the hell do you_—" Her reply was cut off when she glanced up and saw the ceiling descending rapidly towards them with long transparisteel needles.  _Shit!_  Cursing to herself, she gripped the side of the car, holding on as hard as she could.

_Luke?_ she asked.  What if he hadn't moved as quickly?

_I'm here, Mara._  She heard his voice clearly.  The turbolift car came to a sudden, jarring stop.  Mara nearly lost her grip, and hung only by her hands for a few precious seconds until her feet found purchase on the smooth side.  She heard Luke's cry of pain.

_Luke!_


	21. Chapter 21

**NOTHING STAYS THE SAME**

**CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE**

_Luke!_

_I'm okay,_ she heard him say.  _But my hand's going to need work._

_Which one?_

_My right one.  _Damn it, _I though I was far enough over.  _He sent her the image he himself was looking at.  One of the transparisteel needles had driven itself straight through the flesh of his mechanical hand.  Sparks flew from at least one severed wire.  A small trickle of blood ran down his hand.

_Shit!  Is it ruined?_

_I don't know.  I've got to get this needle out first.  Hurts like a son-of-a-bitch, though._

_Big surprise there, Skywalker._  She looked up.  The ceiling was barely a meter above the roof of the turbolift car, and that meter was full of long sharp needles.  She also noticed that both of her arms were bleeding.  She'd been so concerned about Luke that she hadn't realized she'd been hit as well.  One razor-sharp spine had just sliced across her right forearm, and she carefully, slowly, pulled the other one from her left arm.  It wasn't in deeply.  It had entered at her wrist, and she doubted it had hit the bone in her forearm.  She knew that it would hurt more if it had.  Once again, she knew that from experience.  No one said the life of the Emperor's Hand was one without pain.

She made sure her left arm was securely around the cords hanging from the car and grabbed her lightsaber with her right hand, thanking whatever gods there were in the universe that the turbolift's safety system hadn't been tampered with or destroyed.  It would have been much worse had the turbolift not stopped short of the ceiling.

_Hold on_, she told him, and in one easy motion, ignited the lightsaber and drove it into the car wall.  A second too late she realized that she was on the side with the controls, and not the harmless empty wall she'd originally thought.  Sparks flew from the car, and it dropped several meters.  She braced herself just before the sudden stop, but even then nearly fell off.  She looked around again.  This turbolift car was one of three in the large, echoing shaft.

She pulled herself up and climbed on top of the car.  Light from the turbolift shone through the myriad of holes in the supposedly impenetrable car.  Weren't these things supposed to be safe?  The car moved a little, dropping another half meter.  Luke quickly pulled himself up.

_Did you hit the controls?_

_Yeah,_ she admitted.  _I think my saber completely fried the circuitry._

_We need to get off this,_ he told her, his comment accentuated by another meter drop.  Luke looked around.  _Pretty lonely up here.  I wonder where the other lifts are?_

_One wasn't here at all.  It was at the bottom.  The other one will be near the bottom, still.  If this car doesn't completely fall to the bottom, maybe we'll get to the right door._  She grabbed his hand and wiped some of the blood away.  _Went through the meat.  You'll be fine._  Awkwardly, she added, _Thanks for the save._

_No problem._  The cables holding the car groaned, and they dropped over two meters this time.  With the sparse light, Mara could see the top of the doors to the highest story.  The way that the car was now shaking and swaying was not comforting to the former assassin.

_Luke?_

_Yeah?  
                I don't think this thing's going to hold us much longer._

_Yeah, I know.  Is that the door right there?_

_Uh, huh._

_Okay._  He flicked on Corran's lightsaber.  The cold silver blade lit up the area, and illuminated the shaft around them.  He carefully began to slice around the doorjamb, carefully making sure not to touch the turbolift car they were on.

_When it falls again, we should be able to get through the cut._

_Yeah, hopefully.  It'll be just our luck that the squad of stormtroopers you mentioned were right behind this door._

_Don't say that, or you'll jinx this entire mission._

_Does it always have to be a mission with you, Skywalker?  Why can't you just refer to this as a job?  Instead you have to say _mission_.  Like that makes it any more damned important._

_Are you going to argue with me on _everything_, Mara?_

_Of course, farmboy.  That's why you love me, remember?_

_Yeah._  The turbolift cables dropped them another two meters and Luke quickly sliced through the remains of the door.  _I don't sense anyone behind the door_, he told her._  And I don't think it's because of ysalimiri._

_Whatever.  Just get the door open._

He gave the cut door a Force push, shoving it into the hallway.  He quickly stepped onto solid ground, and reached around immediately for Mara.  She was right behind him, but slipped.  She tried to twist to avoid hitting flat out on her right knee, and succeeded in part, She struggled to stand again, her knee smarting and threatening to go out on her.  The so-called-"safe" turbolift car was swinging gently, but the next sound Mara heard was anything but safe.  A vibroknife blade.  And the snapping of cables.  

_Shit!_  Leaning halfway out of the door, Luke grabbed her forearms and forcefully pulled her off the car just as it finally relented to gravity and popped the last cable.  After a few seconds, Mara couldn't see it anymore in the darkness.  She kept her hold on Luke's hands as tight as she could, knowing that his right hand would be hurting even more than before, but also knowing that if she let go, she might not be able to hold onto just one hand.  She tried to find something to put her legs on, to help boost her up, but she couldn't find anything.

_Come on, Mara_, she heard in her head.  _I've got you.  Just don't move._

He began pulling her up, his muscles straining, until she grabbed onto the floor with her own hands and pulled herself up.

Cara's head snapped up as soon as she heard the crash.  She had allowed herself to doze off sometime during the night.  They were already inside?

She slammed her hand down on the computer interface in front of her.  "Split screen in five, show all holocamera feeds."  She had placed the holocameras where she had expected them to try and enter.  It had been an entertaining mental exercise.  Mara Jade had been trained by the Emperor's finest.  Cara could barely stifle a laugh.  If only the Trader knew.  Cara herself had not known until Tawnie, that self-serving power-hungry sadistic bitch told her everything.

Cara realized she had let her mind wander.  All right.  Mara was obviously the most experienced infiltrator out of whatever group the New Republic could throw at them.  Imperial training usually denoted going into the objective bluntly ensuring that your group easily outnumbered and outgunned the other group.

However much the Empire trusted brute force, Mara Jade had surely been trained in the subtle arts of a small team, and of the lone assassin.  Although Cara had never received the information, she knew some of the basics.

Number One.  Mara and her team would enter through the back entrance.  Only suicidal amateurs entered hostile territory through the most obvious entrance.  Jade was anything but an amateur, and too stubborn to take anyone else's comments seriously.  Therefore, Cara had installed the first of her limited number of holocameras at the back entrance.

The ship that Mara and her team had arrived was a small Corellian freighter.  The team had to consist of ten or less people.  Would she bring them all with her?  Figure she'd leave a few behind, as a rear guard of sorts.  So eight people tackle her building.  Six in the back, two through the front.  Maybe all eight or so through the back.

Once she was inside, Mara had two choices: stairs and/or turbolift.  Cara was nearly one hundred percent certain that Jade would take the stairs.  A turbolift was too easy to be ambushed in.  So Cara had placed the sharp spikes from the ceiling, to eliminate anyone else who may come in with her.  Of course, this entire time, Cara was assuming Mara would sense the Force void on the top floor, and know that Tawnie was there.  So Cara installed holocameras Two and Three in the staircase and turbolift.  Number Four was in Tawnie's room, and Five was in the old woman's so-called "Throne Room."

When the holocamera feeds came up, number Three showed only two red words at the bottom—NOT FUNCTIONAL.

So some Republic pansy had found her surprise?  Wonderful.

She grabbed the lightsaber off the table and ran for the recently built turbolift.  After all, she wasn't stupid enough to sneak up behind a trained assassin.

Luke replaced the lightsaber on his belt.  _That was a close one,_ he thought, unintentionally transmitting his thought to Mara.

_You're telling _me_ that?  I just had a damned near-death experience!_

_Emperor's Hand—toughest woman alive—dies of a heart attack.  _For some reason the Tatooine farmboy found this morbid thought hilarious.

_Yeah, that'll be the day, Skywalker_, she snorted, and elbowed him in the ribs.  His urge to laugh only flared.

Mara's blaster was already in her hand as she silently walked down the hall, much like a stalking predator.  Her stops didn't falter, even when she reached the void.  She motioned Luke forward.  He pulled his blaster free of its holster and took a deep breath.  He was ready for this.  Stepping into Force void was always awkward for him, and his fingers were tight around the blaster's grip.  There were three doors—one to each side, and then the open doorway directly forward.

One of the reflective doors was mostly closed, and Luke put his fingers in the crack and pulled the door open.  Mara was the first one inside, he blaster out and ready.  The room was large, with picture windows that the transparisteel was missing from.  Everything had been torn around, as if a wild animal had escaped.  Mara's practiced eyes trained on the miniature holocamera placed inconspicuously by the door.  It was a small cream blob, and Mara wondered whether she would have seen it if someone hadn't programmed it to follow a target.  The almost-silent _whirr_ had caught her attention, and she pulled it off the wall ever so delicately and stepped on it, crushing the circuits into the floor.  Normally she would have ensured it was no longer sending off pulses by stunning it, but she had used better surveillance systems before.  This was child's play.

She found nothing else of notice in the rest of the room and she walked back out to the hallway.  The other door was closed, and she touched the small codepad to see if it would open without having a code punched in.  The door slid open, but halfway along its circuit the door got stuck on something in the wall and the motor struggled to get the door past the obstacle, making a loud shrieking noise.

"I am not over there, children."

The voice was not loud, but Luke recognized it almost immediately as his former captor's voice.  Mara's blaster was already pointed at the door.  She began to cautiously walk to the last of the three rooms.


	22. Chapter 22

**NOTHING STAYS THE SAME**

**CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO**

_"Mr. Alino!  Mr. Alino, there have been rumors that your client has been killed. Is this true?  Is the NRI responsible for her—"_

_"That's all they are, Miss.  Rumors.  My client is perfectly healthy."_

_"Then why has the trial been postponed for so long?"_

_"To insure Ms. Jade's safety.  As you know, there have been _two_ attempts on her life already."_

_"Do you really believe that the detonator found in the Senate Chamber was meant for her?"_

_"Yes, I do.  The assassin sent after my client is very skilled, and obviously does not care about collateral damage.  That's all I have time for."_

_"Mr. Alino!"_

Iella Wessiri Antilles flipped off the HoloNet.  "So how long do you think he'll play along?"

"He doesn't seem to have any ill will towards us or Mara.  I don't think he'll tell anyone."

"He's a lawyer, Leia.  They play along for however long it benefits them."

"Well, lying to everyone doesn't really benefit him, Iella.  If anyone puts two and two together and come up with a bomb scare, he's in trouble, too."

"Not as much as me."

"It was a necessary operation, Director.  I suggested it, and I will take the blame.  However, Mara needed to disappear.  We need to stop this smuggling outfit.  Mara, Corran, Talon, Chewie, and my husband are equal for this task."

"And your brother.  You mentioned he was alive."

"Yeah, I felt him.  He kind of let his presence flicker enough so that I knew he was okay.  Other than that, and Shak'rra's report, I don't know much."  She didn't add that it felt that Luke was shielding his presence, and dampening Han's and everyone else's.  Although Han wasn't Force-sensitive, Leia had always been able to feel his presence.

Much like on Wayland, Leia had sent another team of Noghri after the _Asteroid Belt_ took off from Coruscant.  The only problem was that Shak'rra, the team leader, arrived in the O-Pahz system to find an Imperial Star Destroyer.  She noted that the IMPSTAR APPEARED TO BE FULLY FUNCTIONAL 

Furthermore, the _Asteroid Belt_ was nowhere to be seen.  Shak'rra had stayed in the system for several days until the Star Destroyer noticed the small ship and came after them.  Shak'rra had taken a microjump out towards the outer planets of the system.  They jumped back in system an hour later to find their communications systems all jammed and the Star Destroyer much more aggressive.

Shak'rra had commed Leia for further instruction after they managed to limp out of the system, their hyperdrive faulty, shields nearly slagged at twenty-five percent for the rear, fifty percent overall.  Lady Vader told them to have their ship fixed, and although she knew the Noghri soldiers wouldn't believe her, she added that it was not their fault.  Something like that could happen to anyone, and she was not about to order faithful soldiers to kill themselves by trying to pass a hostile Star Destroyer.

"You said Shak'rra had to jump out of the system a few times.  The _Asteroid Belt_ could have jumped in during any of those times, and the Noghri wouldn't have known."

"True.  But that Star Destroyer…they wouldn't have known about it.  Damn, Iella, the NRI didn't _know about it!_  How can an ImpStar show up in a system, and your people _not know_?"

"Luke was all right.  I'm sure if Solo and the others didn't make it, he'd make sure you knew.  Plus, they weren't under ysalimiri, and Corran and Mara are Force-users.  You and any other Jedi would know."

"It's just strange.  I don't like thinking that I would 'just know.'  I want proof, Iella."  Leia was reminded of what Mara had said.  If Luke had been killed, she would _know._  Surely if Han or Luke were seriously hurt, Leia would know, right?

"And unfortunately I can't give any proof to you.  My one contact on Caratos was murdered in a fly-by shooting last week."

"And did the Empire control Caratos then?  A Star Destroyer is kind of hard to miss."

"Marks knew that some areas on Caratos were being evacuated, but he was in the process of learning why."

"I want to go find them—"

"But if you left now, our charade would be for nothing, Madame Chief of State."

"I know, I know."

Mara walked slowly into the room.  The ceiling was at least ten meters above her head, and there was a balcony of sorts outlining the room.  The room was covered with crimson and gold, and would have been much more impressive had it not been for the stale atmosphere.

The carpeting had once, early in its life, been a brilliant red.  Now it was covered with a snowy grey dust.  The windows were blacked out and the only light in the room radiated from glowpanels inserted in the ceiling and along the floorpanels.  Odd shadows were scattered across every object, the random boxes and broken chairs and tables.  

Luke was right behind her, and as he entered the room, his memories came back in full force.  He'd been in this room the majority of his time here.  As soon as he walked through the doorway, a large blast door slammed behind him.  He jumped, not expecting it at all.  Mara flinched almost unnoticeably, but her attention was behind the dark velvet curtains strung up on the opposite side of the room.  An old woman stepped out from behind the curtains, less than eight meters in front of Mara and Luke.

Mara froze.  The old woman—it _had_ to be Tawnie—walked slowly and purposefully towards a nutrient cage Mara hadn't noticed before.  She didn't appear armed.  She had shoulder length red hair, with what seemed natural white streaks, which made Mara mentally add another five years to the woman's age.  She was slender, and practically the same height as Mara.  She wore a simple dark green tunic shirt and black pants.  The shirt was cinched at the waist with a deceptively simple braided belt.  Tawnie's face was shadowed as she reached her hand into the cage and pet the ysalimiri, her demeanor one of a person who knew that they had all the time in the world.

Then the old woman stepped away from the lizard cage, and her arm shot out with a speed Mara hadn't expected her to show, and grabbed the ysalimiri behind the head.  The muscles in her arm convulsed, and the sloth-like ysalimiri struggled for a second before going limp.  Mara felt the Force presence of the woman, strong, but not as dark as she'd expected.  Nowhere near the Emperor's signature.

Then Mara felt a pressure, a buzzing on her mind.

She looked up at the woman; confused, and scared that she knew the truth.  She'd felt this before, but it hadn't been her, but Luke, many years ago.

On Wayland.


	23. Chapter 23

**NOTHING STAYS THE SAME**

**CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE**

Corran tried to wait patiently.  He had tried to reach both Mara and Luke several times, but both times he'd been turned away by the mental shields they'd constructed.  Unsure of whether or not he would be able to break through them, he decided not to.  If they were already at that Tawnie person's base, then any distraction could hurt or even kill one or both of them.  So the question was to either risk killing either of them, or letting them know that their enemy was more powerful than they'd originally thought.  Angrily, he sat down on the edge of the chair.  The softly glowing crystal sat alone on top on the three-legged table.

Maybe he was wrong.  It _was_ possible that he'd actually been hurt in the crash, and that was affecting his judgment now.  He could be just imagining the sensations he felt from touching the small red shard.

But maybe he _wasn't _wrong, and this red glass was _exactly _what he thought it was.  If so, then someone had actually found the Kaiburr crystal.  He could have sworn that it had been destroyed, that he'd heard it had been crushed long ago, but here was a piece of it, right in front of him.  Maybe that was all it was.  Luke could have stolen this small piece, because it was all that Tawnie had.

Then why did he feel that the rest of the rock was on the planet?  He was so _sure_ that the rest of it was near, and it was his mind that argued with him.

Didn't the Kaiburr crystal have healing properties?  He could have sworn he'd heard that somewhere along the line.  The stories of the crystal's mystical properties were probably inaccurate, anyway.  It probably just glowed and could be felt in the Force.  There was moss and fungus that did the same thing.

He was overreacting, obviously.  It was nothing _that_ important.

He reached out for Luke and Mara, waiting to feel their muted auras.  Instead he felt nothing, a void he'd learned to recognize.  Ysalimiri.  Well, that settled it.  If this shard had been only one small section of the entire Kaiburr crystal, then surely Tawnie wasn't stupid enough to think that it still worked when the Force could not be touched, right?  So this was the only piece.

"Who are you?" Mara demanded.  Luke put a hand on her shoulder, more out of curiosity than anything else.  She knew that he recognized the pressure as well.  She shrugged his hand off.

"My dear, I know that you are aware of who I am."

"I don't give a crap.  Who the hell are you?"

The woman seemed amused.  "Tawnie Calanast.  And you are Mara Jade."  She laughed.  "And of course," her voice grew ice cold, "your companion is the vaunted Jedi Skywalker."

Another woman entered the room, to the right of Tawnie.  Mara was surprised by how much this new woman looked like her.  From Luke's description, she knew that there would be some differences, but they were insignificant next to the likenesses.  The same lips, same high well-bred cheekbones, vivid green eyes, naturally pale skin.  The main noticeable difference was the hair, but this woman could still pass off as Mara's twin.

Then Mara noticed that two other women entered the room, both coming up behind her and Luke.  Instinctively, she turned so that her back was facing the wall.  Luke tried to do the same thing, but the four women made it difficult to do so.  He felt his blood run cold.

Because every single woman looked the same.  _Exactly the same._  

Impossible.

"So when did you make the clones?" Mara asked, making a valiant effort and succeeding at getting past the pain building in her temples.  This couldn't be happening.  It took a great deal of effort on her part to push away the pain and retreat to that part of her mind that always let her think, no matter what was happening.  It had never failed her before.

This, this must have been something the Emperor had done.  There had been ample chances during her servitude to that lying son of a bitch for him to take a sample of her blood and put it away, probably in one of his little trophy houses that he loved so much.  But still, someone would have to have found it, which insinuated either luck or knowledge that the Emperor had not even divulged to her, since the only place she knew about had been Wayland, and that mountain had been blown sky-high so long ago.  Could some of the Spaarti cloning cylinders survive the detonation?  Surely not.  And if none of _those_ had made these clones, then the Emperor _had_ to have left other cloning stations.

She couldn't distract her mind enough to keep the revulsion from coloring her thoughts.  _Clones_?

_Mara, calm down._

At first she thought it was her own mental voice, but then she realized that it was Luke, instead.  He'd taken down the shield he'd immediately surrounded his mind with and was helping shield hers.

"You can't hide your thoughts from me, _Mara Jade!_"  Tawnie screamed, much like a petulant child whose favorite toy had been taken away.  Her jade eyes softened as she changed the subject.  "Now you meet your sisters."

Corran closed his eyes, attempting to reach the cool refreshing center he always retained in his soul.  He'd never been much of a healer, but he knew that if Mara and Luke's mission went wrong, it would be necessary to immediately exit Caratos.  Han wasn't as close to dying as he'd been before, but he still wasn't in the best health.  He'd been awake for a few minutes about half an hour ago, but neither Corran nor Talon believed that he was aware of his surroundings.

And so now Corran kneeled by the cheap bed the other Corellian lay on, hoping that the few lessons Luke had given him would kick in and mix with his grandfather's teachings.  Maybe he really _could_ do this.  He had to try at least, right?

Corran let his thoughts vanish into the mists of unconsciousness as he touched the warmth he learned to associate with the Force, and he tried to bring it over to Solo's still form.  It seemed to slip through his fingers.  He tried again, and on his third try, he managed to create a thin link between them, a brilliantly hued thread of pulsing energy.  He worked to strengthen it, to add thread by thread until he had a unyielding cord between them, so that he could concentrate on _healing_.

He didn't know what time it was when he woke up, or how long he'd be in the trance.  He blinked a few times, but nothing was different.  Something had stirred him from the trance, though.  He tentatively let his Force presence wander around the small house.  The exhausted Wookiee was asleep down by the door.  Talon was sitting up, cleaning his blaster.  And Han looked the same as he had.

Did his healing trance do _any_ good?  It didn't look like it.  Talon glanced up from his chore.  In the dim light his skin seemed paler than ever.

"How is he?" he asked in a loud whisper.  Ever since the crash landing, it had seemed like they were all afraid to speak loudly.

"I think he's better," Corran answered.

"You think?"

"I'm not very good at these things.  I never completed my full training."

"So you're a half Knight.  Great.  Why don't you finish the Academy?"

"Because I didn't like it there.  It was all so…I just didn't like it."

"Ah," he said, as if he understood.  Corran wondered whether the smuggler chief had ever been through an Academy like that.  Could he have been an Imperial, like Solo here?  Was he in the armed forces, maybe a planetary army?  They really did not _know_ this Talon Karrde, yet they had trusted him with their lives on several occasions.  Why did it seem that pasts were not important?  If one looked into Corran's record, they would find that there was a warrant out for his arrest, should he ever be found on Corellia, for the murder and mutilation of several smugglers.  Even though that warrant was several years old, it still existed.  Luke was the only one without this checked past.  A farmboy turned hero.  Han Solo's history wasn't known very well, at least not the section about him being an Imperial pilot for a time.  Saving a Wookiee and getting kicked out of Imperial service, he soon became a top smuggler, and like the famous fairy tales, met a princess and settled down.  Now he had three children, a Jedi Master brother-in-law, and his Princess wife.  And then there was Mara Jade.  From what he knew, she had been the personal assassin for the late and unlamented Emperor Palpatine.  Other than that, he really didn't know.

He bit his tongue to keep from laughing out loud.  A smuggler chief, an assassin, a former Imperial, a farmboy, a Wookiee, and a Republic X-wing pilot.  What an odd team they made!  And with enough of a past to make any psychologist go crazy trying to figure out how they all could work together, and actually _enjoy_ each other's company.

"Okay.  I'm going to try again."

"Sisters?"  Mara asked.  "You mean clones.  So when were these _clones_ made?  Are they all new?  Or have you kept them hidden away?"

"They are your sisters, Mara," Tawnie said.  "They are not _clones_."

One of the women walked closer.  "Tawnie, you're confusing her."  She studied Luke and Mara, like they amused her.  "So you are Mara Jade.  So pleased to meet you."  She stayed just out of arm's distance.  She wore what Mara would have worn: a one-piece black suit, made to be as flexible as the wearer.  Her red hair was pulled back in a thick plait, like Mara had braided hers.  At her belt was a weapon Mara recognized immediately—the hilt to Luke's lightsaber.

"Mutual, I'm sure.  I'm sorry, I don't believe I know _your_ name," Mara answered, with mock-politeness.

"Cara."

"And is there a last name to that?"

Cara cocked her head to the side.  "No.  They just call me Cara.  Clones don't have names."

"Cara," Tawnie said angrily, "You will not speak unless I tell you to _and I have not told you to speak!_"

"Of course, Mistress Calanast."  There was a lack of respect in her tone.  Kyp Durron used the same inflections when he was particularly pissed with Skywalker.  "She has a temper," Cara added, needlessly.  "She would probably need help from a psych-droid, but, well, I don't want to pay for that.  The easiest way to get rid of that necessity would be to kill her, don't you think?"  She said all this quietly, just for Luke and Mara to hear.

"I tried to tell you not to come here," Cara continued.  "But you had your stubborn shields up.  Now that you're here, I'm certain Tawnie won't let you leave.  She's terrible about that."


	24. Chapter 24

**NOTHING STAYS THE SAME**

**CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR**

"So where did the Emperor hide all you clones?" Mara asked, her voice frigid.

Cara laughed.  "Mara, Mara.  You believed everything that the Emperor told you when you were young, and then you said you'd never allow yourself to be lied to again.  But you are still living a lie."

"What lie?"

"You honestly believe that you are the original Mara Jade."

"_What?_"

"Isn't it rather obvious?  I thought Tawnie said you were sharp," Cara said, patronizingly.  "You're the clone."

Mara blinked in disbelief.  "A clone?  You're trying to tell me that _I'm_ a clone?"  Her green eyes narrowed, hiding her doubts.  "Impossible.  You lie."  Her right hand rested on the still-holstered blaster.  Luke touched her shoulder, but she shrugged his hand away.

"Did you really think you could have survived all those missions, Mara?  Did you really think you were the only one?"  Cara's posture mirrored Mara's stance.  Luke saw both of them, mirror images of the same person—the dark Cara, and the Mara he loved.

"Think about it, Mara.  All those gaps in your memory?  All the times you escaped a situation you couldn't?"  Cara leaned closer to the Trader.  "You didn't escape, Mara.  Five times, you died.  And when this body died, it would be my turn."

"How?" Mara asked, angry with herself for believing this shit.  The woman obviously suffered from an overactive imagination.  She was the one and _only_ Mara Jade.

"Yours wasn't the only mind he'd done this to.  Bevel Lemelisk, does that name ring a bell?"

"That's who was in charge of designing the Death Star.  Yes, I knew him."  _I killed him, too.  The only time I ever used a Force whip._

"Every time Lemelisk failed the old man, no matter how small, he had Lemelisk executed.  Piranha beetles, Force lightning, torture sessions.  Eventually he lost imagination.  Drowning, suffocation.  Chained him to an ImpStar hull."  Cara laughed.  "And of course, your little Force whip session.  Damn, wouldn't you think Bevel would eventually grow smart and commit suicide?"

"What about him?" Mara asked.  She didn't see the humor in that situation.  She could still remember the dying man's writhing body, and she could only see how the Emperor had manipulated everyone within his reach.

"It was the same with you, Mara.  He would just erase what memory you had of your death, and simply moved your mind into a new body."

"That's impossible.  I'd know.  He left mental blocks, shielding the memories of my childhood, and after I removed those.  I couldn't find anything else."

"Do you honestly believe the Emperor was _that_ stupid?" she countered.  "He left those memories for his own sick mind.  He took the memories of your deaths away so that you would remain fearful of death.  You see, one thing he never counted on was for Lemelisk to grow tolerant of pain, and to lose fear of death.  He began to screw up more and more often.  See, it's like disciplining an animal.  You just have to wave the whip at first.  The nerf keeps away, moves faster.  Then you bring the whip down, and the creature jumps forward.  Eventually he grows tolerant of the whip, and no longer cares.  The Emperor made that mistake with Lemelisk, but he was more careful with his Hand."

"You know what's great about what you're saying?  None of it can be proven."  She could feel the headache she'd suppressed beat at the edges of her perception.  "None of it.  How long did it take you to think up that lie?"

Cara's slight smile disappeared.  "This isn't a lie, Jade.  This is the truth.  I was next in line.  I would have become the Emperor's Hand!"  Her voice rose with her temper.  "And what's more, I can prove it.  Go ask him yourself, you arrogant—"

A strong wind lashed through the room, tearing the carpeting from the ground and the broken furniture and throwing it around like sand in a Tatooine storm.  A table leg caught Cara and threw her across the room, slamming her into a wall.  She crumpled to the ground and didn't stir.  Mara staggered, grabbing onto the smooth wall, trying to find something to hold onto.  The wind storm was over as quickly as it began.

Mara stood up, and Luke grabbed onto her arm.

_What the hell?_ Mara asked him silently.  She glanced around.  She didn't know many who could bring on a Force storm like that.  _Wait a sec.  Where's Tawnie?_

_She must have left when she started the damned storm,_ Luke answered.  _Where did she go?_

_I don't think that's the first thing on our mind, Skywalker,_ she responded.  The other two clones had not been touched, and Mara recognized the two colors—red and purple—that bounced off the walls.  Lightsabers.  Why did it seem that everyone had lightsabers?

_At least there's one good thing.  Look at the one to the right; she doesn't know what she's doing,_ she pointed out to Luke.  _She's holding the hilt awkwardly._

_Yeah, but the other one's somewhat skilled._  He glanced around discretely and pulled the lightsaber from his belt.  _You take the one on the right, I'll take left._

"Corran?  Hello, hey, are you still here?"

Corran pulled himself out of his thoughts and faced the smuggler chief.  "Something's happening."

"Mara?"

"Yeah.  I don't know what, but something's happened to her.  There's this…distortion…in her presence."

"Like what kind of a 'distortion'?  Is she okay?"

"I don't know."

"You've got to have _some_ idea of what's going on!"

"I don't.  The Force doesn't work that way.  If she or Luke are in danger, _then_ I'll know.  Other than that, I can't actually tell anything."

"Sorry, sorry."  Talon ran his fingers through his dark hair and leaned back.  "It's frustrating.  I came along so I could help.  Instead Solo and I are burdens to the whole damned thing.  Gods, I despise irony."

"I don't blame you.  I never expected to baby-sit a guy twice my age."

"Hey, Junior, I am no where _near_ twice your age.  Do I come off as being that old?"

"Naw, not really.  Okay, well, not all the time."

"Smug bastard.  At least I don't have grey hair yet, old man."

"I do not have grey hair!"  Corran sat back.  "The dye just hasn't completely come out yet."

"Dye?"

"I _am_ fairly noticeable, Talon.  Mirax and I went on a vacation, and she felt that maybe if I dyed my hair some, then less people would recognize me."

Karrde nodded, not really believing him.  "You lost a bet, didn't you?"

"I am never betting against Wes ever again."

"Hey, it could have been worse, right?"

Corran remained silent.

"It was worse, wasn't it?"  Talon laughed.  "Let me guess.  Women's clothing?"

Corran's head shot up.  "How did you—" He cut his response short.  "Damn you," he finally said to Karrde.  Talon didn't bother trying to keep a straight face, and laughed.  The pilot glared at him for a few minutes, and then joined him.  It _was_ pretty funny.  If it hadn't happened to him.  Why was it, with all that he'd done, just thinking about looking in the mirror back at his reflection in a short red dress and blond hair still made him turn red?  At least Mirax didn't get a holo of it, though he doubted his wife would ever stop teasing him about it.

Mara refused to step backwards when the clones walked forward.  Mara ignited her lightsaber at almost the same time Luke did with a _snap-hiss_.  She pulled her blue blade up, holding it in a defensive stance Luke had taught her.  Until she'd trained with Luke, she'd mainly only known offensive positions.  Luke's silver blade added its glow to the room.  Mara slowly began to walk sideways from Luke.  Although it usually helped to have a skilled partner at your back, it would make it easier for the clones with lightsabers.  Besides, who actually knew what kind of training they'd had?  And especially since the one following her didn't seem too sure of her own glowing blade.

She found it harder to concentrate past the buzzing in her mind reinforced by the distinctive low thrum vibrating off the walls.  "So which one are you?" she asked the clone standing in front of her.  "Did they bother to give you a name, or are you just Clone Number Three?"  She felt Luke questioning her, and she sent back to him her reasoning: if the clone wasn't experienced as a fighter, if she got angry, maybe she'd be sloppy, and easy to eliminate.

"Arienne."

"So you _do_ have a name.  Took you long enough to answer.  I wasn't sure whether they gave you a name or not."

"Mistress Calanast gave me my name a year ago."

"Is that how long you've been alive?" Mara asked.  If the clone was in a talkative mood, then maybe she could get useful information from her.  Arienne didn't answer.  Instead she lunged forward with her lightsaber.  Mara easily deflected the red blade, pushing it to the side.  _You want to play rough?  I can still beat your ass._  Staring into the same face as hers, she knew how Luke had felt, fighting his own clone on Wayland.  It was just plain scary.

Luke knew almost immediately that the woman he was fighting would be a handful.  If she had been fighting him on her own, he was certain it wouldn't be hard to "eliminate her," as Mara had said.  But with the tie he felt to Tawnie…this fight would be challenging, nonetheless.  He tried to snap the line attaching her to her mistress, but Tawnie stabbed into his mind, almost breaking his shields.  He slashed downward, and the clone jumped back, the hilt held in both hands.

He hadn't thought that Tawnie was powerful enough to do this.  She was using both her clones as puppets and still had enough strength to repel his own Force powers.  He knew that he was not the strongest Force-user—Kyp, although still young, had more raw potential than Luke did—but he was still stronger than most.  If Tawnie had been so powerful, than how could he miss her own strength?  Her power hadn't overwhelmed him, like it should have.  He'd known immediately that Kyp was strong, but he'd believed that Tawnie was weak.

Something in the back of his mind.  What was it he was missing?  Something important…

Mara waited patiently for her opportunity to arrive.  The clone was a quick learner—was that an inherited trait or engineered?—but Mara was better.  She had picked up on Luke's questions, and his knowledge that Tawnie was using the clones as puppets.  The clone brought her blade around in a slash.  Mara blocked the saber and shoved it down to the ground, cutting into the carpeted floor.  With the blade momentarily out of the way, Mara hooked her foot behind the clone's legs and dumped the woman on the ground.  Arienne began to roll back onto her feet, but Mara caught her on the blue blade, the thick stench of seared flesh in the air.  The clone didn't even cry out in pain or anger as her body collapsed boneless on the ground.  The hilt of her lightsaber clattered on a broken tabletop and fell onto the floor, the blade extinguished.

Out of habit, Mara glanced around, double-checking the location of everyone in the room.  She gripped her lightsaber, ready to jump in and help Luke when she heard a familiar _snap-hiss_ behind her.  Pivoting on her left foot, she barely managed to block the magenta blade from bisecting her.


	25. Chapter 25

**NOTHING STAYS THE SAME**

**CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE**

Luke channeled the Force to stimulate his tiring muscles.  The clone was tireless, and although she'd originally begun as little more than a novice, she was now as good as him, and growing better.  He'd barely had a chance to begin to exploit her weaknesses when Tawnie covered them up and attacked.  Plus, Tawnie constantly poked and prodded at him with the Force, pushing at him, stabbing his mental shields, and trying to slow his reactions.  It was just too damned unfair!  If he could have just a few seconds to catch his breath, he knew he'd be able to reinforce his shields to ensure that Tawnie couldn't get to him.

At least one thing was in his favor.  He remembered him and Mara talking early that day—had it only been one day?—and she'd known he'd seen a Jedi vision.  He'd wanted to tell her why he didn't want her to come with him.  He had seen him and her, fighting as furiously as he and the clone was now, lightsaber striking and blocking.  He jumped and flipped backwards over a table; Tawnie pushed him off-balance.

As tired as he was, he landed flat on his back.  The clone smiled grimly and stabbed down with her blade.  Luke dodged the shaft of light and somersaulted backwards, picking up a chair with the Force and throwing it at her.  She sliced it neatly in half, but that second was all he needed to get back on his feet.  He called his lightsaber back to his malfunctioning hand, and flipped it on just in time to ward off another strike.

"Tawnie's pissed at you now," Cara said.  "She was mad before, but she doesn't like other people killing her clones."  After the initial strike, Cara had backed away, out of range, and now slowly began to walk around Mara again.  She had a cut somewhere along her scalp, and a trickle of blood disappeared beneath her low collar.  Her purple blade lit her face eerily.  Mara remembered using a purple lightsaber as the Emperor's Hand on occasion.  She hadn't used it often, however.  Lightsabers were too recognizable.

Mara gestured towards Luke's heated battle with Carima.  "I take it that Tawnie didn't give you all enough time to learn lightsaber techniques.  Tawnie is animating that clone."

Cara didn't even look at the other fight.  It had been a feeble attempt on Mara's part to distract the other woman.

"They know the basics.  However, you and Skywalker are beyond just the basics.  Especially you.  Tawnie had been trained with a lightsaber a long time ago.  She's just relying on her old training.  You know, since you've arrived, all my hard work has been destroyed."

"Sorry," Mara responded, unrepentant.

"You and your boyfriend have a choice.  Do you really want to fight me?  And _then_ attack Tawnie and everything she has there?  Leave now.  I'm willing to let you go now.  Take Skywalker with you and leave the planet.  I'll deal with Tawnie."

"No.  I came to deal with this, now.  Not leave behind a crazed clone."

Cara glared daggers at her.  "I offered you a chance to live, but you turn it down.  It's time to find out who's better."

Mara knew instantly that Cara was as good as her; she knew every step, combination, attack, and block Mara used.  Mara realized what had happened when the _Asteroid Belt_ crashed onto Caratos—Tawnie had shoved her mind into this clone's.  Cara now had as much experience as Mara did.

Corran was in a half-trance, trying to ease some of Han's minor injuries.  He'd done what he could for the former smuggler.  If nothing else went seriously wrong, then he was confident that Solo's famous good fortune would last until he was dunked in a bacta tank.  _Corellian luck never fails._  One moment he was sitting on the chair, and the next found him on the floor, trying to catch his breath.  He didn't see the room he was physically in; instead, he was now standing behind Luke.  Luke fought Mara—

Corran couldn't believe it.  There were three women, and they all looked like Mara.  Exactly like her.  He was able to recognize Jade almost immediately by her strong presence.  Other than that, it would have taken him longer.  Clones?  Mara was fighting a clone.  Cara, he knew from Luke.

_What do you need me to do?_ Corran asked.  Luke was splitting his attention—barely keeping ahead of the green blade—and it took him a moment to answer the Corellian Jedi.

_Help Mara_.

_How?_

_Don't ask me—ask her!  She'll be able to tell you what kind of help she needs._  

Corran moved closer to Mara's duel.

_What can I do?_ he asked her.  He could feel her tiring.  The clone had just the same skills, knew everything Mara did, and had a seemingly endless Force reserve.  Corran touched the cord of energy connecting Cara to Tawnie.  Unlike the clone Luke fought, Tawnie did not control Cara; she only gave her clone the energy needed to defeat Mara.  He tried to cut the tie, but Tawnie immediately repelled him.  His considerable Force powers seemed almost nonexistent to the blinding presence of Tawnie.  Who the hell was she?

Traveling all day, added to the turbolift disaster, had left Mara to fight two fresh clones when she was already tired.  It was an unfair match up, but Mara was an exceptional swordswoman.  Luke would have helped her had he not been caught up with the living puppet from hell.

Mara blocked a particularly vicious blow from Cara, but then the clone closed her hand into a tightened fist and Force-yanked the silver chain off Mara's neck.  Mara ignored the burning on the back of her neck caused by the Force pull.

Cara looked at the ring for a moment.  After what seemed an eternity, she began laughing.

"From your Jedi Master?  Your _farmboy_?  Do you really think he loves you?" She tossed the ring away, as if it was insignificant.  Mara wanted to try and catch it, but she needed to concentrate solely on her opponent.  "He's a farmboy from Tatooine.  All he sees is your beauty.  That's it.  But you—you actually believe he loves _you_."

If looks could kill, then Cara would have been little more than a grease stain on the wall.  She had found Mara's private fear.  Mara knew that most men were shallow.  She'd had those men chase after her for her attractive body.  But Luke wasn't like that.

Right?

"You think he actually loves you?  Mara, you're naïve.  I thought you were supposed to be intelligent.  I guess love has blinded you."  Her last statement was offhand, mocking.  She seemed to lean forward, conspiratorially, although Mara knew she never moved.  "I don't think he'd noticed if I took your place."

Mara angrily brought her lightsaber down into Cara's circle.  The clone moved backwards.

Corran closed his eyes briefly and, like he'd done with Solo, created a cord of Force energy between him and Mara.  She immediately began to draw on it, refreshing her tired muscles, speeding her attack.  She parried the magenta blade, pushing it back.  Cara went with the saber, then Force pushed Mara just enough to unbalance her, and swung her legs under Mara's.  Mara jumped above and flipped backwards.  As soon as she touched the ground again, her blue saber was up and ready.

Corran could feel her mind.  Her shields were up, but he had access to the bond between her and Luke.  She calculated the clone's movements, like how he always did when sparring.  The only difference between sparring and the fight Mara and the damned clone were engaged in was that the loser would die.  Cara anticipated every step Jade would make.  Mara was fighting her equal.  If this was to remain a test of endurance, then Corran feared that Mara would lose.  So Mara's own expertise wouldn't get her out of this?  Then his would have to.

Evidently Mara hadn't heard his decision.  Even though she was fighting Cara, she normally would have laughed at him.  She'd beaten him less than five days ago.  The only way he'd come close to winning that fight was through his mental attack.  And he already knew that such an attack wouldn't work with Tawnie.

So it was the sword they had to beat Cara with.  Mara drew more on Corran for strength.  He was dimly aware of Luke's continuing battle with the other clone.  Then he remembered a technique his grandfather had mentioned in the notes.  Risky; it could only be used once for a particular opponent, but for that once, it was effective.  Corran himself had never used it, but he guided Mara through the motion.  She resisted at first, sensing what he wanted to do, but then relented.  She allowed Cara to bat aside her blade, limiting what Mara was able to do.

At first didn't seem Cara believed it, and then the clone smiled triumphantly and swung her own blade around, a strong blow to disarm and decapitate Mara.

_Mara!_ Both Mara and Corran heard Luke's cry.

At the last possible second, just before Cara could use her powerful strike to end the fight, Mara flipped off her saber and fell backwards.  The clone tried to compensate for it, but it was a split second too late.  Her strong swing continued and Mara snapped her blue blade back into existence and neatly burned a hole into the clone's chest, ripping the blade upward, boiling blood and melting skin and organs.  The clone dropped to the ground.

Three things happened simultaneously.  Tawnie had frozen up when Cara was killed and her inattention to her other clone let Luke behead her in one swift blow.

Corran found himself shoved back into his physical body.  He suddenly knew with a sense of foreboding that he had to sever the tie to Mara and Luke.  It was too late.  Tawnie screamed along that tie, and managed to memorize his location.  He knew that he and Chewie had to get Solo and Talon out of that house.

Third, Mara knew where she and Luke had to go.  Before Cara's mind had disappeared forever, she'd told Mara what Mara needed to know.  Tawnie was in her "throne room," a room poorly hidden behind the curtains on the far side of the room.  She had retreated so that she could protect her most valued possessions—a large red stone, and another Spaarti cloning cylinder.  The damned woman guarded another Palpatine.


	26. Chapter 26

**NOTHING STAYS THE SAME**

**CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX**

Chewbacca was unsure of how long the standard day on this planet was, but his internal clock told him it couldn't last much longer.  He'd been on guard duty outside since before the dim sun rose in the grey sky, with only one break when Corran had come out to relieve him for a few hours.  The large Wookiee had surveyed the vicinity, and to his mild surprise, had found no other beings.  Although it appeared that the location had been evacuated, he doubted that every being would have abandoned their possessions.  There was no one out there.  He remembered when he and Han used to smuggle items to and from Caratos, and it had never been like this.  He had hoped to run across at least one native, or hell, anyone, who knew what was going on.  Mara and the kid had left early in the morning, and it bothered him that he didn't know where exactly they were going.  He doubted they knew, either.

Surely the great Talon Karrde would have known if a major evacuation would have occurred on this planet, but Karrde had confessed to a lack of knowledge on that subject.  The chestnut Wookiee ducked through the door to the house where Han and the others were.  He despised leaving the injured Corellian behind, but he knew Corran was a Jedi, and that his own skills lay in surveillance and guarding.  If anything went wrong, the Rogue would inform him.  It took him only a few seconds to adjust to the lighting, and he was surprised at what he saw.  Han looked better.  Chewbacca's hunter eyes picked up on the strong pulse beating, and his best friend was no longer as sickly pale.

But instead, the X-wing jock he'd just been thinking about was sprawled on the floor.  Chewbacca growled concernedly at Talon Karrde, who was awake and checking Corran's vital signs.  The Wookiee knew that it must have pained the Trader to move around like that with the broken bone.

"I don't know, Chewbacca," Talon said in response to the growls.  "He just slumped in the chair and fell to the ground.  He's still breathing, and his pulse is strong, though.  That's a good sign."  He shrugged.  "I guess we wait until he wakes up.  I wonder what the hell did that."  The Wookiee also noted that the man had his blaster out and the safety off.  Just in case.

[Maybe a Jedi thing?] Chewbacca asked, before realizing that, amid all of the Master Trader's abilities, understanding the Wookiee language was not among them.  Damn him.  Once again Chewbacca hated not having the ability to speak the human's tongue, Basic.  Not that many believed Wookiees to be intelligent so that they never bothered to learn that language.  So that left Chewbacca in need of a translator.  He had briefly toyed with the idea of getting a droid like his nephew's translator, but decided against it.  The prissy voice reminded him too much of See-Threepio.  He'd have to constantly rebuild the droid when he let his anger vent.

Thankfully, the human stirred.

"What the hell happened?" Talon demanded.  Humans were so diplomatic.

"We've got to get out of here."  He tried to stand up.

"Yeah, I know that.  As soon as Luke and Mara get back."

Corran grabbed onto Talon's forearm.  "No, _now_.  Tawnie knows where we are.  She's sending a crew from the _Retaliator_ down to find us."

"Shit!  How does she know?"

"That doesn't matter.  She found me, and she's sending a group out.  We need to move Han."

Chewbacca had grown accustomed to reading human faces and he thought Corran was hiding something.  But whatever that was, now wasn't the time to find out.

Mara nearly collapsed with Corran's quick withdrawal from her mind.  She was bone-weary from the fights.  Arienne had been good, but Cara was much better.  Mara noticed that Luke walked up behind her.

"Head all clear?" he asked quietly.

The intense pounding in her head was dulled.  "Yeah, just about.  How are you doing?"

"My hand hurts, and I've realized I'm out of shape."  He was still breathing hard.

"No, you just rely on the Force too much for endurance."  She stood up straight, controlling her breathing carefully until it was normal again.

"I really don't want to go in there," he said.  He'd seen the same thing she had.

"I know, but, hey, I'm the one facing the clones, okay?  You only had one.  I _supposedly _had eight.  What a load of bantha shit.  Come on, Luke.  We can't let the bad girl win."

"Uh, Mara?" Luke asked.  He had a bad feeling that he had found out what he couldn't remember earlier.

"Yeah?"

"You know what that red stone is, don't you?"

"No.  What's so important about it?"

"I kind of think it's the Kaiburr crystal."  How could she have surpassed his shields enough to suppress his memories?  Were his shields that bad?

"The Kaiburr crystal?  But it was destroyed."  She remembered Darth Vader's report to her former master.  A mob of crazed Mimban natives had attacked the Circarpasian xenoarcheologists and crushed the crystal, and then brought down the Temple of Pomojema, where it had been hidden.  At Luke's odd expression, she added, "But I guess it wasn't.  Why were you on Mimban?  Vader never mentioned running across you."

"I think he was already planning his offer to me," the farmboy muttered to himself.  That was probably why Darth Vader—Anakin Skywalker—whatever—never mentioned the meeting to the Emperor.  "Leia and I were at the Temple because some local woman told us about the crystal.  It's a long story.  I'll tell you later."  _If we get out of here._  "Anyhow, it wasn't destroyed.  After I healed Leia and myself, I gave it to Halla."

"Well, if your assumption is right, then Tawnie has it.  How in all the hells of Corellia did she get a hold of it?"

"I don't think we should worry about that now.  We've just got to get it back.  It belongs in a museum or something."

Mara bent down and picked up Cara's cold lightsaber, and clipped it onto her belt.  Her blue bladed sword was still in her hand.  Better to have an extra weapon and not need it, than to not have one and desperately need it.  She also gingerly picked up her Tatooine flame ring and broken chain.  She slipped it into one of the numerous pockets in the drab peasant's clothing she wore.

She walked to the wall Cara had indicated and drew the old faded curtain aside.  Three stairs led down to a large room, and then the throne Cara had shown sat on top of a stage.  Behind the large and ornate chair Mara could see the top of a Spaarti chamber.  Stretching out with her Force senses, she realized that Tawnie was the only one in the room—the clone of Palpatine was still growing inside the tank.

_Keep Tawnie occupied.  I'll take Palpatine_, she told him quickly.  She knew that they wouldn't be able to mind-speak for long.  The Kaiburr crystal accentuated Tawnie's power, and she would soon probably be able to break into their thoughts.  They had to get rid of her before that.

Tawnie stood in front of her throne, her head down, feet shoulder-distance apart.  She seemed to be shaking from pure anger.  In her hands was the heart-sized crystal.

"You killed my daughters," she said softly.  "You have proven yourself worthy of being called my daughter.  I would let you leave, but you cheated.  Your little Corellian friend cheated."  She looked up and glared at Mara, her jade eyes flashing.  "Now I will have no mercy on you."

Mara flipped her lightsaber on, echoing Luke's weapon just before Tawnie began tearing the items from the floor at the two Jedi.

Luke used the Force to create a shield around himself.  He knew how easy it was to miss one object, and therefore open himself to more hits.  As Mara was slicing and dodging the broken sections of furniture, she slowly moved back and around so that she was to Tawnie's right side, and she walked forward.

Tawnie's hair began blowing around wildly as she started up another Force storm.  These storms were obviously her strong point.  They caused plenty of damage, though not entirely accurate.

Mara jumped up to keep from being hit by a durasteel chunk, but Tawnie had anticipated this move.  A large wooden shard drove itself into the side of Mara's right knee.  When she hit the ground, she rolled and brushed away the temptation to pull the shard out and lose valuable time.

Seeing that Mara was hurt, Tawnie concentrated further on the Jedi Master.  Luke lost himself in the Force.  He held his undamaged left hand before him, and the hurtling objects veered away from him.  He began his own counterattack, throwing large pieces of the wall back at her and striking the vaulted ceiling above her, attempting to bring part of the ceiling down on the woman.

Mara pushed herself off the floor in time to narrowly miss being decked by a cracked glowlamp.  The majority of the items in the room not nailed down (and several that had been) swirled around in a mad whirlwind around the insane Tawnie.  She tried to ignore the pain in her left knee and lunged for the dais as soon as the other woman stepped off.  She rotated her wrist and switched the saber on, and jumped to the cloning vat that was temporarily unguarded.

"Commander?"

"Yes, Lieutenant?"  Konor Yrevied asked, without turning around. 

"Sir, the stormtroopers have landed on Caratos and are within minutes of reaching the Rebels."

"Good.  Keep me updated.  Dismissed."

Konor didn't really care how he knew the location of the Rebel scum.  Tawnie Calanast was capable of using the Force.  She'd given him orders before in his mind.  It was nothing new.  But the latest command, the one she'd given immediately after divulging the Rebel's location was disturbing.  _Destory Imperial Center._

"They've reached the house, sir."

Corran watched the house from a safe enough distance away.  Han had woken up when they were moving him, and the Rogue had to gag the other Corellian to keep his cussing inaudible to the Imperial scanners.  He watched the white-armored stormtroopers literally tear apart the house, for any clues as to where they'd gone.  Fingering his blaster, Corran jogged back to the tall Wookiee.

"They'll search there for a while, but they'll probably split up soon to search for us.  We've got to get further away."

Chewbacca grunted his concurrence.  He held his bowcaster in his hands, and glanced back at Han and Talon.  He had taken the gag off of his friend when Solo stopped cursing the ancient gods of Corellia and all the other deities he could think of.  The Wookiee just wasn't sure how much further the injured men could go.  And Corran wasn't looking very good either, though the Rogue pilot just denied it.  Damn Jedi.

"Mara and Luke are busy.  As soon as they finish, they can let me now, and I'll tell them where we are.  Other than that, there's not much we can do about them."

_"No!"_

Tawnie turned and screamed, a wordless shriek that conveyed all that Mara needed to know.  She plunged the lightsaber into the controls that kept the Palpatine clone's vitals normal.  Sparks flew but Mara didn't waste any time.  With one strong thrust, she impaled the Emperor's clone on the blue and white energy blade.

The clone never woke up.  He just died, silently, allowing the enraged old woman scream for him.

Luke took her momentary hesitation and wrenched the red stone from her hands.  Tawnie grasped at the empty air for the Kaiburr crystal, and then just collapsed onto the floor, sobbing.

Mara yanked the wood out of her leg, although she could feel splinters left inside.  She'd have to get them out later.  She stood up and walked to the woman.

"Mara, Mara, I'm sorry."

"You should be."  Mara hadn't extinguished the glowing saber.

"I never wanted him to steal you.  You—you were my favorite.  The smartest.  The fastest.  You could have followed in my steps.  You would have been the perfect dancer.  That's what I was.  I used to be a Jedi, but I never passed the Trials.  Master Kilani never taught me enough.  I left the Temple, and became a dancer.  And then I met the most charming man.  Senator Palpatine.  He knew who I was, and he helped me.  He gave me the money I needed so I didn't have to work, and he always visited.  He was the dearest man.  And when he began to rise in the Republic, he brought me with him."  Tawnie never looked up during the entire telling.  She took a deep breath to quell her sobs.  "He only asked for one thing—to create clones from me.  I was the perfect woman, he said.  He always wanted me with him.  I don't know what went wrong.  He left me on Wayland, with you and your sisters, and you all began to grow into beautiful young women.  I was proud of you all.  He was making you into his special Hands, his most trusted.  He started to visit me more often, each time taking another of your sisters.

"I never wanted you to be given to that monster.  I loved you.  You were _my_ daughter, not some _thing_."

Mara remained impassive throughout the woman's entire confession.

"You _knew_ what he was doing, but you didn't care.  You gave us to the monster.  Some mother."

Tawnie's head snapped up.  "You don't understand.  You were just clones.  You weren't really human.  I wanted a daughter, someone who was _mine_.  And instead he gave me _duplicates_."  Her tone was disgusted.  Her previous attempt at creating sympathy was destroyed, and she knew it.  "You weren't even faithful to _him_.  I received that last command, too, Mara Jade.  I saw Skywalker and Vader murder him.  You didn't obey the Emperor.  Killing a clone is not the same thing as killing the real thing.  You destroyed all my plans.  Skywalker was my sacrifice to the reborn Emperor.  If your sisters hadn't been so incompetent, you would have been dead in that prison cell.  I promised him I would see you dead for your betrayal."  Tawnie Force-grabbed the extra lightsaber from Mara's belt and flipped it on, the purple blade lighting up her face.  She knew she wouldn't win, but she also knew she could take one of them down with her.


	27. Chapter 27

**NOTHING STAYS THE SAME**

**CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN**

Konor Yrevied knew that something very terrible had happened.  He no longer felt the reassuring presence in the back of his mind.  She was gone.  He dug his fingers into his right arm, trying to keep from shaking.

"Plot the course to Imperial Center."

The young lieutenant glanced at him oddly.  "Imperial Center, sir?  What about our forces on the ground?"

"Imperial Center, _now_!  It is not your duty to question me, only obey!"

"But sir, the stormtroopers, the natives are not—"

"_Now!_"

"Sir, unknown ships have just entered the system," another youth announced.  "Shit, sir, she's another Star Destroyer.  I can't get an ID.  Is another Star Destroyer supposed to be joining us?"

"Lieutenant, get us into hyperspace to Imperial Center immediately, or I will have you executed for disobeying a direct order."

The young man swallowed.  "Yes, sir."

The navigator, a woman, glanced up from her console.  "Sir, the other Star Destroyer is heading straight for us."

"Then ram them!"  That response hadn't been his thought.  Konor touched the walls of the bulkheads protecting him and his crew from the void of space.  What was wrong with him?  He wasn't like this.  He was always cool and in command.  He _always_ protected his crew.

Tawnie.  It must have been her.  What had she done?  He had barely a minute to consider this question before his legs gave out, and his body crumpled on the floor.

Tawnie stared at the gaping wound on the left side of her chest.  It had not pierced the heart, she knew, but it had broken through the sac around it.  She would be dead in a few minutes.  She opened her mouth a few times, and finally seemed to convince her mouth to form words.

"How…how could you?  I was your mother…"

"No, you weren't."

"Denying it won't alter the past, Mara.  I hope…you r-realize.  By killing me, you…killed hundreds of innocents.  The _Retaliator_…" Tawnie tried to take a deep breath, and blood flicked on her lips.  Her ruined lung wouldn't expand.  "The _Retaliator_ will destroy…" She managed a weak laugh before her Force essence left her body behind.  Unlike Cara, Tawnie didn't try to redeem herself, and left Luke and Mara's presence without a word.

Mara braced herself for the Dark Side energy she expected to feel when her blade carved into Tawnie Calanast's chest.  She felt mild surprise when the angry, scalding rush of Dark power didn't rear its ugly head.  All that was left of the fierce pressure in her mind was a dull ache.  Tawnie was dead, but she and Luke were still alive.

"The _Retaliator_?" Luke asked quietly.  He didn't want to disturb Mara, as the beautiful redhead looked down at the corpse, but Tawnie had mentioned that the _Retaliator_ would destroy something.  He needed to know what.  It wouldn't do to save the galaxy from another insane woman with an Imperial agenda, only to lose hundreds in an attack he could prevent.

"Star Destroyer.  Shot us down."  She looked up at him, her green eyes studying his features.  "You don't really believe her, do you?"

"Believe what?"

"That I'm a…clone."

He walked over to her.  "Is that what you're worried about?  Mara, I don't care.  I don't care whether you are a clone of that woman, or whatever.  To me, you're the original Mara Jade.  It doesn't matter how many look like you.  Tawnie allowed herself to be drawn into his web.  You broke away.

"But I don't care about them.  I care about you.  As far as I'm concerned, you are the one and only Mara.  There will be no one else for me but you."

A smile flickered across her troubled face.  "Thank you."  She shook her head minutely, and the old Mara Jade was back, hiding the insecure woman again.   She walked over to the shattered glass of the cloning tank and toed the body.  "Yeah, he's dead.  Great.  Check her body.  See if you can't find something useful."  She glanced around, hoping to find something to show where the weapons were being hid.  After all, that was the main reason she and Luke were there, was it not?  The reason for coming had been muddied by the appearance of the freaking clones.

Luke checked the pulse by habit.  He knew she was dead, but he just wanted to be sure.  He began checking the clothing for hidden pockets of any kind, and then looked up at 

"Mara, there's nothing here."  

She tapped the computer interface on the throne.  "Kind of funny, isn't it?  She grew Palpatine's clone, and evidently considered herself to be the one to bring the Empire back through creating another Emperor.  She was a loyal servant to Palpatine."

"But she created a throne for herself," he finished.  "Maybe she was just keeping it warm for him."

"Maybe."  She glanced around.  "I don't see anything…" Her voice trailed off.  "Uh, Skywalker?  You should take a look at this."

He looked over at her, and then followed her eyes, and turned his head to gaze at the ceiling.  A myriad of pinpoints of light was held in midair, and it didn't take much for Mara to recognize it as a map of the known galaxy.  Green represented the Imperial Remnant, Red for the enemy, the New Republic, and Blue was standard for the Unknown Regions.  But then there was purple, the planets circling around Caratos.

"I get the red and green and blue, Mara, but what's up with purple?"  

She knew that he realized what it was as well.  At least a dozen worlds were highlighted.  "We've got to tell the Republic about this.  They're going to need to know."

"I can't believe that Tawnie had this large a support base."

Corran watched through the macrobinoculars.  The stormtroopers had searched the house fully, and were organizing into groups to expand their manhunt.  He didn't want to risk Tawnie finding him and the others, so he couldn't use the Force to find the Imperials.  He'd had to rely on the conventional techniques.  In other words, sit around and watch them through the binoculars Mara had brought from the _Asteroid Belt_.

He heard nearly silent footsteps behind him, and he whirled around, pulling his blaster from its holster in one neat motion.  He'd gotten plenty of practice doing that with Rogue Squadron and their barhopping nights.  Of course, Mirax never let him join up with his pilot buddies anymore without her.  She knew too well what usually happened when Rogues drank.  All twelve of them ended up spending the night in prison.  She was sick of bailing him out, not that he could blame her.

"Chewie, how are the others?" he asked, sliding the blaster back into its place.  Although the Corellian didn't understand Wookiee, he guessed that he would be able to tell from the hand motions and tone of Chewbacca's grunts and growls.

[Talon's in pain, but okay.  Han is asleep again.  He's going to need to have his bandages replaced soon.  He reopened some of his wounds when he began struggling.]

_So maybe I _won't_ be able to tell._  "Okay," he said, drawing the word out.  Chewbacca watched him crouch down and then did the same.

"The stormtroopers are getting ready to fan out and begin the actual search.  I think we covered our tracks well.  They shouldn't be able to pick up on it that easily.  But just to make sure, I'm going to go lead them somewhere else.  Stay with Han and Talon, okay?"

The large Wookiee shook his head.  [You can barely stand up yourself.  I've got more energy than you.  Besides, I'm better at this sort of thing.]

"I have no earthly idea what you just said, except for shaking your head."  _Why didn't they teach Wookiee at the CorSec Academy?_  He was opening his mouth to tell Chewie that _someone_ had to watch over the injured men, but hesitated when he felt measuring touches along his mental shields.  The contacts weren't like Tawnie's sharp jabs, so he let his defenses lower.

_Corran, it's Luke, _he heard immediately.

_Are you and Mara all right?_

_Yes, we're okay.  Tawnie's dead._

_Good.  Uh, we've got stormtroopers searching for us._

_How?  No, don't answer that.  Tawnie._  Corran could feel his friend shaking his head.  _Where are you, then?_

_Not nearly far enough away.  We didn't have enough time._

_Okay.  Just stay low.  Mara's checking for the location of the weapons.  She hacked into Tawnie's computer interface._

_I'll see if I can get the others out_.

_Good._

Corran nodded an affirmative.  "Come on, Chewie, we've got to get the others out of here."

[What about your brilliant idea of being bait?] the large Wookiee asked.

"Chewie, I don't understand Wookiee—"

"He asked about your brilliant idea of being bait to drag the Imps away," said a familiar, although tired, voice.  "He was being sarcastic."  Corran turned around to face the weary ex-smuggler.

"Han, you woke up.  Great.  We're going to have to move you again.  You think you can do it without the blue streak of cussing?"

Han laughed weakly, and then grimaced.  "Don't make me laugh.  Shit, what the hell happened?  I feel like I took on a Rancor or something."

"The _Asteroid Belt _crashed.  We're on Caratos.  Don't you remember anything?"

"Not really."  Solo closed his eyes, and then opened them again.  "Wait, you mean _I_ crashed a ship?"

"It wasn't really your fault.  The ImpStar shot us down—"

"Okay, okay," he interrupted the Rogue.  "I don't need the whole commentary right now.  I just wanted to make sure it wasn't my fault."

"Fine.  How are you feeling?"

"Wonderful.  Couldn't be better."  Corran doubted that the man could add any more sarcasm to his voice.

"This is a message to the _Retaliator_," the communications officer heard over the open frequency.

"Sir, a message from the other Star Destroyer," he called out.

"Yes?  Do you have any information on her?  Is she a Rebel ship?"  Captain Zuckrash had become the _de facto_ commander of the _Retaliator_ when Yrevied hit the floor and the medical crew called the time of death.  They were performing the autopsy immediately.

"Oh, come on, we're no longer the Rebellion, Captain.  We've been the New Republic for years."

Zuckrash felt his face pale as soon as he recognized the face on the holoscreen.

"Antilles.  So they've actually put you in charge of a Star Destroyer.  Looks like you're moving up in the world."

"Thank you.  Nice to know someone appreciates me."  The Corellian pilot smiled.  Booster would never let him command the _Errant Venture._  "Too bad I don't know you," he said in return.

"Zuckrash.  Captain Zuckrash."

"What happened to Commander Yrevied?  Last I knew, he commanded the _Retaliator._"

"The Commander is not here.  I am in charge of this vessel."

"Okay."  Antilles shrugged, and the captain noticed the smirk.  "Then I'll ask you for the surrender."

"Surrender?  An Imperial Star Destroyer surrender to a Rebel?  Never."

"Have it your way, then."

As soon as Wedge Antilles' face disappeared from the holoscreen, Zuckrash turned to the navigator.  "Do you have the coordinates for hyperspace?"

"Imperial Center, sir?"

"No, Bastion."

"Yes sir.  Just a moment."

Rondel Zuckrash shook his head.  He didn't know what had happened to Konor, but it was best that he just bring the Star Destroyer back home, and report to his superiors.  He never knew why his vessel was selected to guard a pirate planet.  It must have been punishment for some misdemeanor the Commander had committed.  It wouldn't have been the first time.


	28. Chapter 28

**NOTHING STAYS THE SAME**

****

**CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT**

"Got it!  Fifth floor.  Tawnie's got half of the floor converted to a miniature garage, to load up the shuttles.  The other half are the supply rooms.  Part of the sixth story, too."  She gestured towards the map she'd brought up on the screen.  Tawnie hadn't chosen a very difficult code for her computer interface.  Even the farmboy was better than her.  "You want to see if we can get a hold of the New Republic?  Luke?" she asked.

His blue eyes were distant, his face impassive, and she figured he was using the Force to search for any other enemies.  His features relaxed.  "Sorry, I was talking to Corran."

"What did he say?"

"They've got a squad of stormtroopers on their tail."

"Damn.  Where are they?"

"They could move far."

"Should we go back and get them?  I'm leaving the decision to you.  I don't want to destroy all this weaponry.  We could make a shitload selling this to the New Rep."

"Mara, we aren't selling it.  We'll return it to where it was stolen from."

"I was just joking, Skywalker.  Wanted to make sure you were still there.  Although we would get quite a bit of money…enough to go back to, oh, Shan'dri'lan for a week or two…"

"That's not fair, Mara.  You know that's one of my favorite planets."

"Yeah, I know.  And I can afford us staying there anyway.  I just wanted to tease you a bit.  If we found a comm system, would you be able to notify your sister?  We can't use standard channels, so it'll have to be her private code."

"Why not?"

"This is sensitive information, Skywalker.  We can't just blab it over open channels," she answered.

He studied her.  _You're hiding something.  I've felt it since you arrived.  What's wrong?  _He stepped closer to her.

"We thought you were dead," she replied.

_There's something else, I know._  When she looked away, he touched her chin and tilted her head so that she looked him in the eyes.

Very few people saw deep enough into her to discern a lie.  Luke was one.  And she always had trouble lying to Luke.

"They thought I murdered you.  That I finally snapped and lured you to Corellia and killed you."

"Gods, Mara, I'm sorry.  I didn't realize—"

"Hey, Luke, we've already been through this before, remember?  You didn't mean to be kidnapped, okay?  They just jumped to conclusions."

"Ones that weren't true.  Damn it, after all you've done for the Republic, they still actually believe you were capable of murdering me in cold blood?"  He shook his head.  "Bureaucratic assholes."

"Yes.  Evidently impressions don't change much in the wonderful New Republic."

"They arrested you?" he asked, his voice tight.  "How long was I 'dead'?"

"Luke, we need to find the weapons—"

"How long?"  There was a hint of anger in his voice; anger that Mara knew was not directed at her.

"About a month."

"And they blamed you.  MJ, the Republic isn't stupid.  They just didn't want to accept that their vaunted Jedi Master wouldn't be there to bail them out again, and they took it out on you.  Mara, what if I'd really died?  Huh?  The trial wouldn't have stopped.  They would have had you executed—how did you get out?" he interrupted himself.

"Corran vouched for me.  He told them, Luke.  Your sister, Iella, Han, Talon, and even Chewie knows as well.  I guess our plan to hide it didn't work well."

_It worked for a while, MJ.  We both knew the secrecy wouldn't last forever._

_I at least hoped it would last until the wedding._

_You still want to marry me?_

_Of course, farmboy.  I've never doubted that decision.  _She smiled at him and kissed him softly.  He responded by wrapping his arms around her petite form and holding her closely.  He couldn't imagine having to go back to a life, a universe, where he couldn't be with Mara Jade.

After what seemed too little time for the Jedi Master, Mara gently pushed him away.  "If you keep that up, farmboy, we'll never get anything done."

Even though both Mara and Luke knew that there were no living beings inside the huge room, she had kept her blaster out.  Just because there were no living guards or workers didn't necessarily mean that there weren't droid sentinels.  She'd run across many of the damned machines before, but the only way to take them down quickly was a shot in the joint that connected the head to the body, or slice off the weapons and then decapitate.

Although, if Cara had been telling the truth, then Mara had never actually survived one of those ambushes…

_Stop it!_ she told herself.

Luke pushed open the door, having hacked his way into the keypad.  She wondered briefly where he had learned to do that.  Perhaps from his Rogue Squadron buddies?  He knew how to hack into easy keypads, but he'd never learned to protect his own datadisks, except with the most basic of codes.  Such a strange farmboy.  No matter how long she'd known him, there was always something more to learn.

No alarms began screaming, and no armed druids jumped out at the pair.  Instead, large crates filled their view.  There were small paths around the boxes.  Luke led the way, and Mara stood a meter or two behind him, her blaster still free of the holster.  Just in case.

_Sithspit, Mara, look at all this_.  He shook his head.  _I knew Tawnie had stashed a lot of weapons, but this is more than I expected._

_We haven't seen it all, farmboy.  I think we're about halfway through the show._

Towards the back of the room, the crates began to spread out further, and Mara and Luke ran across their first druids in the building.  They were simple machines, just moving the weapons closer to where the freighters and shuttles would load.

_I'll see if I can find some type of comm system_, she told Luke.

He nodded his agreement.  _I'll just keep looking around, then_.

She walked away from him.  If there was a communications system, then it would have to be away from the weapons.  The excess metal would screw up most messages.  Even with her excellent memory, she knew it would be easy to get lost in the labyrinth of metal boxes.  They all looked the same.  She was about to call out to Luke, to find out where he was, when she found a large clearing.

_It's about damned time_, she thought to herself.  She walked through the open doorway.  "Thank the Force for small favors," she muttered.  She had figured that if Tawnie had made the entire fifth floor into a storage room and loading zone, it would only make sense to keep a communications array down there as well.  There were two droids plugged into the large and antique computer.  One was red, and the other was a familiar blue and silver astromech droid.  

_Hey Luke!  I found Artoo!_

_Really?  Great, I'll be right there._  She let him see which walkways she'd taken. Hopefully he'd be able to find his way with that.

"Hey, Artoo," she said softly.  She'd never spoken to droids until Luke had convinced her that Artoo-Detoo acted more human than many humans, and that the droid's feelings would be hurt if she refused to speak to him.  According to Luke, the small droid had even "threatened" her, saying that he would speak with See-Threepio about her and his Master's "odd behavior" unless she treated him better than just a normal machine.

The blue and silver droid didn't stop working.  She touched his domed head.  "Hey, Shortie, I'm talking to you."

The droid beeped loudly, and Mara glanced at the datapad she'd rigged to him whenever he stayed with her and Luke.  No one had taken it off when he'd been stolen off of Corellia, with Luke.

[My designation is R2-D2, not "Shortie."  Do not disturb me, I am currently performing an ordered task.]

"Don't you recognize me, Artoo?"

[Yes, but am unsure of which one you are.]

"Mara, Mara Jade."

[No data on Mara Mara Jade.]

"What about Luke Skywalker?"

[No data on Luke Skywalker.]

_Luke, he's been memory-wiped._

The Jedi Master reached the door.  "Oh, no, you're kidding me."

"Doesn't remember anything."

"Hey, Artoo, do you remember your previous owner?" he asked the short droid.  Artoo had been his constant companion for over a decade now.  He'd miss the droid's quirky sense of humor.

[Tawnie Calanast and Cara.]

"Damn," Luke said.  Mara understood his frustration. He'd saved the droid so many times, and the droid had helped save his ass as well, and yet the droid had no memory of his adventures anymore.  It was like the death of a close friend.  When Mara had first met Skywalker, she doubted she'd ever understand his fondness for the metal astromech, but now she appreciated it.

"Maybe Han or Talon knows some trick to bring back a droid's memory," he said to her.

"Maybe."  She studied the holomonitors.  "If I'm reading this correctly, then that Star Destroyer is still in orbit.  How can we get help if the ImpStar is still waiting to vape us?"

Luke thought for a minute.  He stood up and moved away from the recording zone.  "You look like Cara.  Why don't you just contact them and tell them to stand down, or something.  That you've already caught the Jedi and his friends."

"Do you actually believe Imperials are _that_ stupid?"

"Hey, it took a couple of X-wings and the _Millennium Falcon_ to destroy two Death Stars."

Mara glared.  "That's different, Skywalker.  Those were Lemelisk's designs, and he screwed up both times.  Not all Imperials are like that."

"You also told me that walking through the front door wouldn't work, but we're still in one piece and they aren't."

"Yeah, you've got a malfunctioning hand, I'm going to have to have a med droid remove all the splinters in my knee, plus we've got plenty of bruises, scratches, and cuts."

"At least we're still alive.  If you won't, I will."  Luke stepped up next to her.

"Are you suicidal?" she asked bluntly.  "Fine.  Get away."  She tapped in the coordinates for the Star Destroyer.  After less than a minute, the commander's face filled the holoscreen.

_"Booster?"_ she asked in disbelief.  The large man's recognizable features and red eye were unmistakable.  The captain of the Star Destroyer _Errant Venture_ grinned broadly at her surprise.

"Mara," he said in greeting, "I've never seen you that surprised before in my life."

"Booster, what happened to the other ImpStar, the _Retaliator?_"

"Oh, we scared them out of the system."

"Oh, good.  Now your ego will swell even more.  Now, tell me, how the hell can the _Venture_ scare of a fully functional ImpStar?  The _Venture_ has seen better days, and the _Retaliator_ seemed to have all her weapon mounts."

"I think I helped with that, Mara."  Another recognizable man walked up behind Booster Terrik.

"Wedge Antilles.  Scourge of the Empire.  Ah," she said, laughing.  "Booster let you transmit from the _Venture_, and the Imps know the New Republic wouldn't give you anything less than the best.  They figured it was a trap.  Smart, Antilles.  My impression of you just elevated a point."

"Oh, good, so I'm no longer Hutt-slime."

"She doesn't think _that_ badly of you, Wedge."  Luke had waited to step into the recording plain when he was sure he wouldn't start laughing again.  Too few times had he seen Mara surprised.

"Luke, you're alive!"  The general beamed.  "Damn it, Luke, we thought someone actually managed to kill you off this time."

"Yeah.  What can I say?  It's hard to get rid of me."  He slid an arm around Mara's waist.

"My question is, why the hell are you here?" Mara asked.  Tact had never been her strong point.

"My wife said you might need some help, and so I gathered this mini-fleet.  We couldn't let the Republic know that Mara Jade had mysteriously escaped from prison, so I couldn't bring in the actual Republic fleet."

"How mini?"

"_Errant Venture, Pulsar Skate,_ and of course, Rogue Squadron."

"A very capable group," Luke said in response.  "Good.  All right, can you see whether Mirax can land the _Skate_ onplanet?  Han and Talon are hurt."

"Where are they?"

"Not far from here.  Do you have the coordinates we're transmitting from?"

Wedge glanced at something off-screen.  "Yeah.  I'll send Mirax down.  How badly are they injured?"

"Talon's got at least one broken bone in his leg, and Han's going to have to spend some time in the bacta tank.  I did what I could for him, before we came out here."

Mara and Luke backed away from the landing platform when the landing lights of the _Pulsar Skate_ grew brighter.  Mirax Terrik Horn landed her personal freighter with the ease of an experienced pilot.  After she brought the engines to idle, she opened the ramp and jogged out to the pair.  She caught Luke up in a big bear hug.  

"A lot of people thought you were dead, Luke.  Good thing they were wrong.  Of course, I'm sure Fey'lya won't be very happy."Mirax grinned.  "Well, screw him.  The rest of us are happy to see you alive.  Where are Corran and the others?  I believe Chewbecca, Han, and Talon came as well."

"Correct.  We'll take you out to them."  Luke and Mara walked onto the ship.

"Its great to see you both relatively healthy," Terrik Horn said.  "Was that your artificial hand?  I'm sure my father won't charge you for bacta use.  I'll make sure of it.  What happened, anyway?"

"Normal Imperial trouble."

"Damn Imps.  So, all those stolen weapons…are they _all_ here?"

"There's a shitload here, but we're not sure if they all are accounted for.  I don't think we'll ever know.  Tawnie had a fairly good system going.  She rarely stole from the same company twice, and never from the same storage area.  She knew that immediately after any theft, security increased, and it would be difficult to steal from the same place."

"Yeah, I know.  I reviewed the information Master Skywalker here compiled.  By the way, you did a very good job.  You managed to get rid of those robberies that didn't match the main profile.  If you were looking for a job, I'm sure Iella wouldn't mind having you on her payroll.  You too, Mara.  Good insertion agent."

"Hell no.  I work for myself, Mirax," Mara answered.

"And anyone else who could pay more," Terrik Horn finished.  "That's my motto, too."

"Should I be covering my ears?" Luke asked.  "Really, I don't think the Jedi Master should _associate_ with _smugglers._"

"_Smugglers?_  Skywalker, I am a _Master Trader_, and I make more a year than you ever will," Mara answered.  She knew he'd said that just to get a rise out of her.

"Come on, guys.  Let's go find Corran and the others."

"I'll stay here and make sure no one takes the crates," Mara said.  She had to take care of business first, before more people arrived here.  Mara stepped off the _Pulsar Skate_.  "I'll be waiting, okay?"

"Mara," Luke began.  Mara cut him off.

"Get out of here, Skywalker.  Go get Han.  He's going to need a bacta soak.  I'll be fine."

Mirax nodded.  If Luke knew what Mara was going to do, he didn't show it.


	29. Epilogue

**NOTHING STAYS THE SAME**

**EPILOGUE**

Leia Organa Solo smiled at the Bothan diplomat as he greeted her.  Han stood next to her, in his freshly pressed uniform, complete with Corellian bloodstripes.  See-Threepio had been programming himself to take on more domestic tasks, sewing among them.  No matter how many technological advances were made in the galaxy, little could beat a simple needle and thread.  She knew how much her husband detested the receptions he was forced to attend because Leia's position.  She noted with a practiced eye that he was still sore from the crash.  He stood straighter than usual.

She tried to ignore the itch that began in her lower back and glanced discretely around the large room.  This trade reception had been planned weeks in advance, to close the biannual trade summit on Coruscant.  She'd been asked to make an appearance, to show the support of the New Republic to this effort by the ten trade leading worlds.  Leia decided to stay when she heard that Mara Jade was planning to attend as well, along with her brother.  Wanting to tap her foot impatiently, she quelled the urge and held her hand out to the Ithorian ambassador.

Luke and Mara, as well as the others, had arrived on Coruscant the afternoon before.  The _Errant Venture _had stayed in orbit for only a couple of hours before disappearing again.  After welcoming Luke back, and thanking the others, she immediately brought her husband to the MedCenter that was attached to the Imperial Palace.  She'd tried to find Luke and Mara after Han checked out clean, but her brother could not be found.  She suspected that they hadn't _wanted_ to be found.

She'd barely gotten to hug her brother before he and Mara vanished.  Not that there was much she could say.  _I'm glad you're not dead?_  Or, of course,_ I thought your fiancée murdered you, but I didn't know she was your fiancée yet, since you never bothered to tell me._  And, then, everything Corran had told her.  _I always thought you enjoyed teaching, because, well, you have to.  You can't change your mind now, though.  Sorry._

"Madame President."

Leia smiled at Iella Wessiri Antilles.  "Please, we're friends.  You don't need to be formal."

"Of course, Leia.  I guess you've heard Luke is to be here, huh?"

"Yes.  I barely got to see him yesterday."

Iella had announced to the reporters that she had helped Mara leave when her field agents realized that Skywalker was still alive.  The charges had been dropped as soon as Luke touched the skyhook on Coruscant.  There was no case against Mara Jade.  Iella knew she would have complaints, especially from Cardinal Ling'ah, whose brief bout in the sunlight had ended, but Leia had already decided to support the Intelligence Director.  Iella was a good woman.

Leia could see Mirax and Corran Horn talking with Talon Karrde and a Duro she didn't recognize.  It didn't cease to amaze her that all who had gone to rescue Luke all came back.  When Shak'rra the Noghri announced that the _Retaliator_ was insystem, Leia tried to prepare herself in case the entire mission was a failure.  When Han arrived after spending five days in a bacta tank, she realized how close it had come to being a failure.  His blood chemistry had been off, and it had taken nearly an entire day to fix that.  As for Talon, he'd spent his time in the tank, and now there was just the barest hint of a limp.  He was back to his normal self, and, it seemed, already bargaining with the Duro.  Also standing with Talon was the lawyer, Rendel Alino.  His reputation had taken a dive when it was discovered that he had lied to the press, but Iella had stood up for him, declaring that he had known the entire time and he was protecting his client by cooperating with New Republic Intelligence.  Rendel would not remain on Coruscant for long.  It was rumored he already had another job, representing a former Bothan spy.  He would only remain at the party long enough to speak with his former client. 

Han stifled a yawn.  These boring social affairs always lasted too long.  Five minutes was long enough for the Corellian.  Although he denied it, he was still sore from the ship crash.  There were some ailments not even bacta could heal, and muscle soreness from the lack of use was one of those things.

Why was he here?  Why was Leia?  It was a damned _trade _reception.  According to himself, all it had going for it was free drinks and tolerable music from a Bith orchestra that reminded him vaguely of the jizz groups he used to listen to at various low-level cantinas.  It wasn't like he or Leia were traders or anything.  

But that wasn't the actual problem.  Han knew that something had happened on Caratos.  Something important, but he wasn't sure what.  Chewie hadn't said anything about it, and Han knew that if the tall Wookiee had known anything, than he would tell his best friend.  Talon seemed to be in the dark about it as well, from what the Master Trader had said in the _Venture_'s MedBay.  So that left the Jedi.  Luke had come to see him several times in the MedBay, and one time Han had woken to find Mara asleep in the repulsor chair next to his bed.  She and the others had taken turns staying with him and Talon.

And then his overreacting wife took him to be checked out with the same doctor and 2-1B meddroid who usually checked out his brother-in-law whenever Luke was in need of repairing.  By that time, Luke and Mara had disappeared, and Corran and Talon had already left the _Venture_'s shuttle.  Apparently he had been the most injured of the group.  Chewie was missing fur in a few patches, but they would grow back in time.  And seeing his children—he could barely imagine missing them more.  It hadn't really dawned on the scruffy ex-smuggler how close he had come to biting the dust until he saw his children.  He'd almost lost them, and his beloved wife.  And Chewie, and Luke, and the _Falcon_…  It was almost too much to think about.  Too depressing.  Once this Sith-forsaken receiving line dissipated, then he would definitely help himself to some of those free drinks, and the depressing thoughts would be suppressed until tomorrow.  Tomorrow he would stay home with the kids, relaxing, maybe fixing some of the connections inside the _Falcon_.  After Luke's supposed death, he'd neglected his adored ship to stay with his wife, but that was over.  Through some trick of the Force that Luke and the others believed, the farmboy from Tatooine had survived yet again, not that the Corellian was upset.  Any day that the Jedi Master survived was a fairly good day.

He knew that although his job was done, the New Republic was just beginning.  About all he knew was that the weapons had been found, as well as the locations of new Imperial sympathizers.  The ring of arms thieves had been found and would soon be closed down.

Han glanced at the long line of beings.  Damn, this was going to take forever.

Luke usually entered through the main doors of the Hall, but this time he bypassed the large crowds and walked in by one of the smaller entrances, Leia noticed.  Instead of his customary Jedi blacks, or his sandy robe, he wore a stylishly cut navy blue suit that she didn't even realize he owned.  He seemed relaxed, at ease with his surroundings, with an arm around Mara's waist.  She was dressed in a long emerald dress that just skimmed just below her shoulders and nearly touched the marbled floor.  Her hair was left to trail down her back, loosely pulled away from her face with a single comb.  Leia caught his eye almost immediately, but her brother didn't walk towards her, and walked towards Talon and the group.

He knew from the buzz of emotions he felt from the people as soon as he arrived that few approved of his arrival with Mara Jade.

He didn't care.

Almost immediately Luke felt his sister's presence, the questions in her mind.  She doubted him.  She questioned his choice in Mara.  She didn't believe that he was the same man he had been before.  And with all the negative emotions he picked up on from the Humans and other species he didn't want to be near his own family's questions.  Sad, but true.

Mara picked up on his momentary sorrow.  _Are you all right?_ she asked him.

_Yeah.  How long do you need to stay?_

_Not very long.  I just need to check with a couple of my associates, and it was easier to just attend this reception than to try and arrange a meeting.  _She glanced sideways at him.  _I told you that you didn't have to come with me.  I know how much you despise these things._

_I wouldn't say it _that_ strongly, Mara.  Han's introduced me to one of the better aspects of these receptions._

_The free Corellian whiskey?  Just don't drink too much.  You and liquor don't mix very well._

_Fine_, he pouted, grinning.  

"What are you smirking about?" Talon asked when Luke and Mara reached them.

"Nothing.  How's the leg?" Mara answered for the Jedi.  

"Better."  The Trader could barely hide his smile.  "You two disappeared in a rush yesterday."

"I had business to attend to," she responded with a haughty tone.  She knew that her employer was aware of exactly what that business included.  She turned to the others.  "Mirax, I see you managed to drag the X-wing jockey with you.  What did you do, bribe him?"

"Of course.  Corran wouldn't have come here of his own free will, even with the free drinks."

"It would seem all the men have alcohol on their brains tonight."

"Don't they always?" Mirax asked.  "Well, when they don't have women on their minds."

_Hey, Corran, I think it would be tactful for you to close your mouth now, _Luke told his friend.  _I doubt your wife likes you to gape at my fiancée._

Corran immediately closed his mouth and color rose on his neck.  He hugged his wife from the back. 

_I was not gaping,_ he retorted.  _I have a cold, and I can't breathe through my nose very well._

_Sure._  Aloud, Skywalker said, "Oh, by the way, Corran, Artoo's picked up some bad habits from Whistler."

"What's Whistler done?  They've only met a few times."  _And those few times are erased from Artoo's memory,_ Corran thought to himself.  Luke and Artoo's friendship was as close as his and Whistler's.  Corran wouldn't know what to do if Whistler suddenly couldn't remember him.  On the _Errant Venture,_ Luke had searched for someone who could bring back Artoo's memory, but the mind wipe had been complete.  The droid Luke knew was gone, even though Luke had brought the astromech with him, for sentimental value.

"As soon as Artoo plugged into the main computer at our apartment, he ran across an odd file and opened it."  Luke laughed.  "He'd downloaded his memory into the computer."

"You mean he remembers everything?" Mirax asked.  It didn't seem odd to her or the others to refer to Artoo as a real person.  As far as they were concerned, Artoo _was_ a real person.

"Everything up to about three months ago.  He'd gotten into a regular habit of doing that every two months.  Something about a conversation with Threepio about their mortality."

"Everything Goldenrod says eventually turns around to 'We're doomed' or something about mortality."

"Han," Luke said, turning towards his brother-in-law.  "True, but at least Threepio did _something_ right this time.  Artoo's fine."

"That's great to hear, kid."  Han looked around to look for his wife.  "It seems that my wife got caught up with the Kuati ambassador.  She's already told me that she wants the first dance with you," he added.

"Well, I've promised Mara—"

"No, it's fine, Skywalker."  _You need to talk to your sister, Luke._

_Leia can wait._

I _can wait.  Talk to Leia.  I don't want this to get any more awkward._

_MJ—_

_Don't argue with me.  Here she is.  Get out of here._

Luke spun to face his sister.  "Leia, you look great."  She was dressed in a conservative crimson dress, her mahogany hair piled up on her head in one of the elaborate hairstyles she usually wore.

"Thank you."  She embraced her brother.  When she broke away, she offered her hand to Mara.  It was difficult for her to react to Mara as her future sister-in-law.  Less than a month before, she'd been convinced that Mara was a murderer.  The former assassin shook her hand firmly.

"It's good to see everyone here," the Princess said.  The orchestra began a slow waltz that reminded Luke of one his Aunt Beru used to hum when he was a little boy still dreaming of the stars.  He saw his sister open her mouth to say something, but he beat her to it.

"Han told me you wanted the first dance," he said, holding out his arm, like he'd been taught to.  After his sister clasped his hand he led her to the floor where several other couples had gathered.

"What were you talking about?" Han asked Mara, watching as Luke led his sister through the steps.

"None of your business, Solo."

"You think there's going to be a fire out there?  Leia's been on the verge of a bad mood all day."

"She's mad at Luke?"

"I think that's the first time you've referred to him by his first name in my presence.  When are you going to start calling me 'Han'?  We've known each other as long as you've known Luke."

"But she's not marrying you, Han," Corran interrupted.

"Thank the gods.  I'd always be afraid she would shoot me if I argued with her.  I don't know how Luke is going to be able to relax."

"He won't."  Corran smiled.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" Luke asked quietly.  

"Where did you learn to dance?  You were never this good."  She could remember vividly the times her brother had stepped on her feet during his attempts at dancing.  That hadn't even been a half-year before.

"I've had an excellent teacher."  He was leading her in a mild version of the dance.  Leia had no idea how good he really was.  He could keep up with Mara in the lightsaber ring, and he was a quick learner on the dance floor.  "I have a feeling you wanted to talk about more than just my dancing."

Leia was silent for what seemed to Luke to last forever.

"I don't know where to start, Luke.  I've learned more about you in the past month from your friends than I think you've told me in a year."  When in doubt, blunt always prevailed.

"In other words, why didn't I tell you about Mara, right?"

Her muscles tensed.  "Yes, partly."

"I didn't want to."

She stared at him in surprise.  "You didn't want to tell your sister you were getting married?"

"No, I didn't want anyone to tell me I was making a mistake in marrying the woman I loved."

"You think I would have told you that?"

"Isn't that was this is about?  You don't know whether you can trust me or not because I never told you that."

"It's not just that, Luke."

"Then what is it, Leia?" he asked tiredly.  "Usually you just complain that I went after a group of Imps by myself.  Regular Skywalker suicide."

"I figured that your fiancée would bitch at you about that without my intervention.  After all, I guess it's her prerogative now."

"Don't drag Mara down with this.  This is between you and me, Leia."

"I have to bring Mara in.  She's as much a part of you as you are of her.  Corran told me, but I didn't believe it.  I do now.  When I touched your presence, when you walked in her, I felt her as well.  There is no longer any such thing as just _you._"

_She's jealous.  Dear gods, I never believed I would see the day._

"Why did everything have to change, Luke?"  As soon as the words left her mouth, she realized how selfish she sounded.

"Leia, you know as well as everyone else that nothing stays the same.  You're afraid that I'll leave you behind.  Dear sister, you've always been there for me.  I'll never forget that.  I can't."

A small tear formed in Leia's large brown eyes.  She opened her mouth, but Luke quieted her.

"I know, Leia, I know.  I'm not leaving you behind.  I'll still be here, I'll just have Mara with me."  He laughed softly.  "If you need me for anything, you now have another person to trust."

Leia watched her brother later that evening.  If she thought he had been a good dancer with her, he was more than experienced with Mara.  Or perhaps it was the former assassin's skills that covered her brother's faults.  Or he had merely been playing with her, easily swaying to the music.  Whichever reason it was, he and his future wife were the perfect couple on the floor.  Mara was radiant, smiling, with eyes only for her fiancé.  Luke knew the dances by heart, no effort into gliding across the floor, twirling Mara around, stepping lightly.

She felt her husband walk up behind her.  "Well, your Highnessness, are you ready to call it a night?" 

She had no idea how long the night had been.  Luke usually left before she did.  But not tonight.  Luke was his own man.  However, in her opinion, like all men, he had needed a woman to watch over him.  Before now it had been Leia.  Now the task had been given to Mara.

Mara seemed to know that Leia was staring at her.  Just one glance of those emerald green eyes, and a glimpse of the flame ring on the thin chain around her neck, and Leia turned to her husband.

"Come on, Han.  Let's go home."

Luke noticed that his sister left before he did.  There was a first time for everything.  He held onto Mara as they moved on the dance floor.  He knew that although the Press droids were technically not allowed in the Hall, pictures and holos would appear of him and Mara by the next morning.  He knew that he had to expect people he never knew to give him advice on his love life.  It had happened to Leia.  The Princess marrying the Smuggler had carried the headlines of the news services for weeks.  What would the headlines read for him and Mara?

_The Jedi and the Assassin?  The Rebel and the Imperial? _Mara asked.  She had obviously picked up on his thoughts, with ease.  _Does it matter all that much what they think?_

_No._  When he had first allowed himself to fall for Mara, he'd wondered what _they_ would say.  How _they_ would not agree with his choice.  How _they_ would try to sabotage his life, like they'd tried for his sister.  He no longer cared what they thought.  He'd lived so long for the New Republic, now it was time to live for himself.

Tionne and Kam Solusar were adept teachers, and Jedi were improving and learning every day.  They didn't _need_ him there, to try and split his concentration between teaching and doing what he loved—being the adventurer he'd always dreamed to be.  And what more, they loved to teach.  He realized that in every move they made, every smile when a student gained experience.

Mara, however, would never want to be tied down to one planet.  She was like him.  She'd never be content unless she could do what she wanted to do.  He knew her past, more than anyone else.  He accepted her, and forgave her for what she could not forgive herself.  He knew what she would do, although she could still surprise him.  He'd allowed her to remain behind when he and Mirax took the _Pulsar Skate_ to rescue Han and the others, even though he knew she would erase her past.  No bodies were found when the ship arrived back there.  The Kaiburr crystal, however wonderful it was, was destroyed.  He'd agreed with her for that.  That crystal held too much power, and it wouldn't be much for another person like Tawnie to seek it out, and the next time he and Mara might not be there.  Would the others fight as hard as they did?

He closed his eyes briefly.  "Mara, you ready to turn in for the night?"

"Yeah.  Let's go."

Although they both left for their separate apartments in the Imperial Palace, they also knew that they would find each other on the roof in less than an hour, to continue their dance.


End file.
